Brev eggs!

[Calavera]

Great news everyone, one of my two gravid Brev's laid an egg. After paying close attenton to my noticably gravid brev, i was thrown off by the second female that was much smaller. Last night i came home and checked my brev cage at around 3 am. and saw that one of my females was "hanging low" in her cage. Because she usually never moves from her favorite little branch on the money tree that is inside the cage, i decided to pay close attention to her. Around 5 am, i discovered that this little lady was ovapositing. I left her undisturbed and waited for her to leave her hole and return to her favorite branch. After she was done, i watched her bury the egg with the soil. After weighing the benefits of both options (leaving the egg in the soil and artificially incubating the egg) i decided to choose the ladder and try my luck with artificial incubation. I currently have the little gem in a tupperwear container, filled about half way to the top with moist pearlite. For an incubator, i filled a 10 gallon tank about 1/4 of the way with water. I am using t he heater from my salt water nano-reef to heat the water. I have the tuperwear container, with the egg intact, floating on a slab of cork inside the tank. I figured the cork would act as a berrier and prevent the egg from getting too hot if the water should heat up. I am using a Fluker's digital therm/ hygrometer to determine the climate of the tank. As if now, i have the egg at 75.3 F with 83% humidity. Aside from being more patient, is there anything else i should do/ improve on to ensure the success of this tiny little gem? What is a finite temp / humidity that i can go with? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I started breeding brevs for this reason and now that i am seeing results, i want to do EVERY thing i can to ensure success.
Thanks,
-Cala-

 

[Marc10edora]

congrats! I read that you have a money tree in there. You might want to check the toxic plant lists because I'm pretty sure that the money tree is not safe for chams.

 

[Calavera]

My mistak, it is a Hawaiian umbrella tree, not a money tree.

 

[Heika]

Hi Cala,

Congratulations!

I have successfully incubated, hatched and reared quite a few brev eggs by just putting them in a container on moist perlite, putting a lid on the container with a small hole in the center, and leaving it sit at room temperature for 3 months or so.

It sounds like you have an interesting setup for your egg, but it is probably not needed. I would consider allowing the egg to have a nighttime drop in temp as well.

Heika

 

[Calavera]

Thanks Heika, that's great to know! I had a few questions as far as temp/humidity go: 1) When people refer to "room temperature" is that around 75 degrees? What is an ideal temperature to shoot for? I live in northern California, where it fluctuates from 100 degrees F to 60 degrees F. I was wondering how tolerable these eggs are to changes is temperature? If i have it at 75 degrees F durring the day, and it climbs to about 78 in the afternon, is this going to compromise the development of the embryo? 2) How crucial is humidity for these eggs; is there an idea percentage to aim for, or should i just make sure that my pearlite is moist? Once again i can't tell you how excited and thankful i am to have all of your great input and support!

-Cala-

 

[jleahl]

Wow, what an incubation chamber! I think room temp is usually defined as 72 degrees F. Maybe your nano-reef can have its heater back now....or maybe, like mine, it doesn't really need a heater this time of year.... Now a chiller might be good...

 

[Heika]

I live in southern Oregon, so I understand the variable temperature. My home temp stays between about 65 and 75 degrees, though. On rare occasions, temperatures get up as high as 80 and down as low as 60. I haven't encountered any problem with incubating in this temperature range, although I prefer them to be above 70 during the day and below 70 at night. Hopefully, roo will chime in soon. He has hatched out small armies of brevs.

Heika

 

[roo_71]

I think the egg incubation chamber is much more then you need. As mentioned, room temps are fine … meaning 75-ish with and a drop at night to around 67F. At those temps, if the egg is fertile, it will hatch in roughly 79 days. Temp spikes shouldn’t cause any problems but I would avoid warmer temps on a regular basis … that would speed up the development process which is never desired – really try to avoid anything over 80F. On a warmer day move the eggs close to the ground level or in a basement where it will be cooler.

Are you sure it’s a fertile egg? Just dropping one egg like that sometimes means it isn’t a fertile egg but maybe it is. I always incubate with vermiculite but I’m sure perlite is fine too. I also prefer to have several very small holes in the top of the container and every week I weigh the container to see how much water was lost then add it back in with a plastic tip syringe. Add water around the egg and other areas of the container but never on the egg. You might want to invest in a digital scale at some point – that’s if you decide to go with the holes on top method.

Humidity … think more in regards to moisture content of the perlite. When in doubt go on the wet side with a couple holes on top. As long as half of the egg is exposed to air then you should be fine – brev eggs are tough. Having conditions too dry will collapse the egg and if you catch it in time and add water then it can rebound but I would avoid it.

In the future when you find more eggs, never rotate them … especially ones that have been sitting in the soil for a bit.

-roo