Tatia intermedia spawned!

[bekateen]

Eggs started hatching this morning! But many remain unhatched, so I imagine it will take until tomorrow to finish them all hatching.

I discovered the eggs Monday morning and it's now Friday. The eggs looked new with very little development when I found them, although they had already formed tiny embryos at that time with tiny tails wiggling. Originally I suspected the eggs were laid overnight Sunday. If that were the case, incubation time was about 5-6 days (today & tomorrow). But now that I think about it, when I first saw them Monday morning, they did already have those wiggling tails. If the eggs were laid overnight Sunday, I doubt they would have reached a wiggling tail stage in less than 8 hours of development. Therefore, now I'm leaning towards the possibility that the eggs were laid overnight Saturday to Sunday morning, rather than Sunday night to Monday morning. That would put the incubation time for this spawn at 6-7 days (today & tomorrow) rather than 5-6 days.

Looking at other people's BLOG reports for

Tatia intermedia

, I see a couple of things:

1. This batch of eggs is hatching slower (5-6 or 6-7 days) than those of most people (2-4 days, depending on which report you read).
2. Although my spawn occurred at about the same temperature as those of other breeders (my tank was at 25-25.5C when the spawning occurred), I removed the eggs as soon as I found them and then incubated the eggs in an unheated room temperature 5-gallon tank at 23C. That's almost cool compared to everyone else's reports, and that alone may explain the longer hatch time.

Even with my own first spawn, for which I did find a few eggs within a night of being laid, those hatched in 4-5 days, but they incubated at the same temperature as the parents' tank, 25C. So it makes sense to me that eggs incubated at 23C may take one or two days longer to hatch.

Today I received a new pump-powered sponge filter (pics below and HERE) which I added to the fry tank (in addition to an existing sponge filter already in the tank, so I'm not worried by the fact that the new filter isn't yet cycled). I added the new filter because it has a spray bar return, so I can get better aeration in the tank to support all these 1000+ babies. I rinsed it thoroughly in RO water before adding it to the tank, but I confess I'm concerned because the sponges had a strong odor, a petroleum product smell like new automobile tires. Again, I rinsed it thoroughly, but I hope I don't live to regret this purchase if it's toxic and poisons my babies.

Fingers crossed.

Eric

[bekateen]

There are still a few unhatched eggs, but I'd estimate that 80-90% have hatched already. Here are a few of the hatched fry.

Cheers,
Eric