Collecting/Incubating Nothobranchius Eggs by Loh Kwek Leong

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ARTICLE INFORMATION:
Author: Loh Kwek Leong
Title: Collecting/Incubating Nothobranchius Eggs
Summary: A series of photographs that illustrates the process of straining and bagging peat with eggs.
Contact for editing purposes:
email: Loh "Timebomb" at: timebomb@ pacific.net.sg
Date first published: 2004
Publication: www.aquaticquotient.com and Loh's web site www.killies.com
Reprinted from Aquarticles:

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Printed publication:
Mail two printed copies to:
Roland Seah,
Blk. 154,
Simei Street 3,
#06-65
Singapore 520154
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Canada..

Collecting/Incubating Nothobranchius Eggs

by Loh Kwek Leong of Singapore
Visit Loh's www.killies.com for information on killifish keeping.
Aquarticles

Ronnie Lee, my killifish buddy in Singapore, has his own method of collecting and incubating the eggs of the Nothobranchius:

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Instead of a coffee filter, Ronnie uses a handkerchief to sieve the peat from the water. The handkerchief is spread out on top of a bucket and held in position by clothes' pegs.

ron02.jpg (10646 bytes)
The peat from the breeding bowl is flushed out on to the handkerchief with clean aged water.

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The peat is left to stand in the handkerchief for a while to let the water drip out. In the background, you can see the two glass bowls that Ronnie was using as breeding bowls. I would advise against using bowls made of glass as fish can be quite stupid sometimes. They will have problems finding their way into a transparent glass bowl and when by chance they do, they won't be able to find their way out. Having said that, however, Ronnie's fish could be smarter than mine. Ronnie's pretty smart, that's for sure.

ron04.jpg (9539 bytes)

The handkerchief is twisted into a ball.

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Ronnie turns the handkerchief several times until a very tight ball is formed around the peat.

ron06.jpg (9690 bytes)

A towel is then used to absorb the water around the ball.

ron07.jpg (9620 bytes)

When the drying process is completed, the ball of peat is spread out on a sheet of paper.

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The peat is bagged immediately although it is still a bit on the damp side. Ronnie does not leave the peat to dry between newspapers.

ron09.jpg (7721 bytes)

The peat is compacted tightly at the bottom of the Ziploc plastic bag. The bag is then folded over twice, labelled accordingly and kept in a store room until the expected wetting day. Killifish breeders all over the world will tell you that there's no one standard method to hatch and raise killies. As they love to say on the internet, "Your mileage may vary".