To diapause or not diapause

[AJA]

I have 10 eggs from a WC Furcifer lateralis. They were laid on April 20th. I was planning on doing the diapause after 45 days, which is right about now however, the eggs are all doing so well and starting to vien. Should I continue with the current temp of mid 70 (23c) degrees or go ahead and put them in diapuase at 55 (13c) ?

I hope to post a photo later today.

Thank you for your thoughts and I understand if you ask ten different people the same question you are going to get ten different answers

 

[jojackson]

Indeed you will Amy

If you do decide to use a diapause, Id do it gradually, slowly drop the temps over several weeks, then in reverse afterward. Dont just plunge them to 55.
If your going to the trouble to so closely mimic natural conditions, you may aswell be all in, so to speak. A sudden drop may have drastic effect, dosent happen in nature.
Eitherway, best wishes with your clutch.

 

[AJA]

Thanks JJ, I was begining to wonder if my post was SO stupid it didn't deserve an answer I picked my eggs up last night and we lit them to see if we could see anything. It looks like there is viening and the "magic cheerio of life" going on in all ten eggs!

I think I will keep going since it's not broke so why fix it.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

IMO Keep them at 70 or even better 68f

I just had some sucess with a constant temp (68) the first 4 months. Then raised it to 74f or so over the last couple of months.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

I think I will keep going since it's not broke so why fix it.

I agree ....

 

[AJA]

Ryan
What did you use for an incubator? I have a hovabator but find that outside temps will fluctuate the inside temps which its NOT suppose to do.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Ryan
What did you use for an incubator? I have a hovabator but find that outside temps will fluctuate the inside temps which its NOT suppose to do.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/6ad2/

Its out of stock now , but you might be able to find it somewhere else.

 

[Jerm]

I have 10 eggs from a WC Furcifer lateralis. They were laid on April 20th. I was planning on doing the diapause after 45 days, which is right about now however, the eggs are all doing so well and starting to vien. Should I continue with the current temp of mid 70 (23c) degrees or go ahead and put them in diapuase at 55 (13c) ?

Just curious why you wait until they are 45 days to do it? With my F. pardalis eggs I have always cooled them for the first 45 days or so then warmed them to normal temp. The coolest that I go is 60 but i'm not incubating lats. From my research and experience, the eggs are layed in a state of dormancy (diapause) and they will not develop until they are either cooled, or a long enough period of time has gone by to trigger their start. If you see viens then development has started and I would say not to cool them at this point or it may just kill the already developing embryo. Just my opinion, good luck with them.

 

[AJA]

Ryan,

That is SWEET.... add another item to my "list"

Jerm,
If you read under the Cham EZine for the incubation methods on lats this is one way of doing it. Since my guys were WC it was suggested to mimic the environment from which they came from. However, I think I will just continue with the straight incuation and skip the diapause because of the development.


Yes, yes, I have a photo of this. Trying to get it from the person who took the picture.

 

[Dooley1]

I wrote the E-Zine article. Ryan is right. Don't use diapause. 68-70 for the duration works best.
Kevin

 

[Jerm]

Thats pretty interesting. I would like to raise lats but I don't have room or time right now. Glad to see that you guys have success with them. Keep up the good work!

 

[Syn]

AJA, did you have someone named Saille incubate your eggs for a while?

 

[AJA]

Yeah..LOL... she spilled the beans to me last night. Small World huh?

 

[Syn]

Pretty small, LOL!!