[Salzy]

Guys...I'm about at my wit's end dealing with my sikorae eggs. I need some advice because I'm getting more and more depressed about my situation.

Here's the story....

Last season I got my trio of sikorae to breed and both females produced a few good clutches of eggs. I had 10 eggs from them and incubated them in deli cups of moist Superhatch. Each cup had 4 air holes and I incubated them at about 70-72F in a dark closet. At that point, I had them directly on the substrate. After a few months, the first clutches got hairline cracks and mold began to form along the lines. I cut them open to find almost fully formed geckos inside. Thinking it was a moisture issue, I put half of the remaining eggs on dry superhatch in bottle caps on top of the moist superhatch. The same thing happened to them as well. All 10 eggs last season perished the EXACT same way...a crack would form and they would mold. I had to dispose of 10 dead little sikorae. I was heartbroken.

This season I asked around and changed my incubation setup a bit. I now have all eggs on dry superhatch on top of moist superhatch, and very little airflow. Temps range a little higher...about 74-75F. However, the same thing just happened in the past couple of days. The first clutch just got cracks, and mold, and little dead geckos inside. That's 12 in a row with the SAME problem.

I have 14 eggs cooking right now, and am desperately hoping that at least one hatches for me this year. I have no idea what is going on and why this is so difficult. I'm beginning to question whether it is even my incubation at all...but perhaps the shells are too calcified or something. I am able to crack them open just fine and they seem fragile enough, but I'm also not a little gecko trying to break my way out.

Any advice or anything that you guys can tell me would be much appreciated. I'm at a loss here myself and I'm too worried about them to be doing any good.

Thanks

[NigelMoses]

I incubate mine on moist perlite. I have done it by placing them directly on the substrate or in bottle caps with dry perlite a top the moist. Room temps have always worked best with a fluctuation between night and day. I have never kept any of my uroplatus eggs at a constant temp and have never had the problems you mention. Also, 90 days is typical and most take longer than that pushing the 100 to 110 day mark. I put the eggs inside of tupperware containers with 6 or so air holes on the top. The containers always have a little condensation on the lid. My guess would be that the eggs are getting too warm. Best of luck.

[uroplatus99]

One thing I would like to question and would like some clarity on... Light. Is it good or bad, or has anyone really seen any difference in a slight indirect ambient light playing a part in incubating eggs? total darkness all the time tells me mold will happen with heat and moisture (even at 70 degrees). How do other view this?

[D.B.Johnson]

I have had this happen with phantasticus eggs in the past. It could be a result of the eggs taking on too much moisture. For me this started happening when I wasn't giving the eggs any real difference between day and night temps. I was leaving the eggs at more or less room temperature, which would be cool (in the mid-upper 60's) for days at a time, and occasionally be in the low 70's every now and then.

I previously had been warming the eggs for maybe six hours or so throughout the day to fluctuating temperatures 72-75 F, and then letting them cool down throughout the night into the mid sixties, sometimes as low as 63 or so, depending on how cold it was outside. The hatch rate under these temps was close to perfect. I decided I would try not heating them at all and just letting them stay in consistently cooler, though fluctuating, temps to see if the hatchlings would go longer in the egg and be hardier after they hatched.

This is when I started having the same issues you are having with your mossies. Plenty (not all though) of those eggs would crack and mold. When they were opened, there were the little guys, some of them looked fully ready to hatch. I am leaving the possibility open that those eggs were being kept too moist. I really think that the bigger issue was the lack of variation between day and night temps, or that the eggs were going too long without adequate warmth. Needless to say, I plan on sticking with my original formula from now on, and hope the problem disappears.

Let me add one more thing (why not, this post is already long as a mug). The importance of the condition of the females laying the eggs makes a huge difference and can't be overestimated.

Sorry this is long, but maybe it will help

Doug

[NigelMoses]

Originally Posted by uroplatus99

One thing I would like to question and would like some clarity on... Light. Is it good or bad, or has anyone really seen any difference in a slight indirect ambient light playing a part in incubating eggs? total darkness all the time tells me mold will happen with heat and moisture (even at 70 degrees). How do other view this?

I have never incubated anything in a closet. Light shouldn't harm the eggs in anyway. I wouldn't put them directly under a light source but all in all I don't think it effects them either way.

[jadrig]

Light shouldnt matter, the eggs are usually not completely covered by substrate anyway...

the problem is too much moisture for the eggs...The moisture part is natural though...
The eggs take on moisture and perspire moisture naturally. You egg shells are most likely too thin. I have had similar occurrences with henkeli eggs...but the eggs had dimples in them.

Are your eggs perfectly round??

I had a few eggs with dimples in them one season which ended up cracking with dead premature babies inside...I figured that I could offset this 'egg swelling' by usuing a slightly drier perlite substrate...I was WRONG! I had a very poor hatch rate in the 'more dry' substrate.
I have always had success with perlite for all geckos/snakes/chameleons...whether directly on the substrate or in a bottle cap.

So...if the eggs are perfectly round and have thick shells...

[luevelvet]

I've noticed the eggs can "detect" light since I have never witnessed an egg hatch during the day. Usually they hatch an hour or two after lights out.

Luis

[Graham_s]

I've also never had an egg hatch during the day. I have wondered myself about keeping eggs in total, constant darkness.

@Salzy: I'm not sure if you are already doing so, but do you provide a night time temperature drop for the eggs?

[Salzy]

Thanks for the responses guys.

It seems like the biggest thing that is being mentioned is temperature. I'm not actively heating or cooling the eggs at all, but I'm letting them sit on a shelf in our gecko room at room temperature...whatever that may be. Sometimes we have the window open and it cools down a bit, but during the day I am normally seeing temps around 72-74. It sounds like that is probably okay for the day, but I should be allowing them to get down in the mid 60's though at night? There isn't that big of a swing in temperatures in the room, so I'd have to be moving the eggs in and out every day. Is that something you would all definitely recommend?

I no longer have the incubation containers in a closet, and they are subjected to the ambient light of the room. The eggs are all in Ziplock bowls with two 1/16inch holes drilled in the lid. There is always condensation partway up the sides of the bowls. The dry superhatch in the bottle caps never shows any signs of moisture. I didn't think it was too wet in there, but maybe I am wrong. I'm just moistening the superhatch, draining off all the excess water, and then putting it into the bowls. It isn't dripping wet at all.

The eggs all look great. The females lay them right next to each other in the peat moss substrate of their enclosure. The eggs are perfectly round and it appears the females slightly roll them because they have evenly spread particles of peat on them. They are fed a mixed diet of dusted crickets, dubia roaches, and lateralis roaches and they are in perfect health as far as I can tell.

[Graham_s]

You could always try incubating the eggs in the vivarium? Until this year, I always incubated my Uroplatus eggs in vivaria and I think I had almost 100% hatch rate.