Any success with egg tumbling?

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joel1234567
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Any success with egg tumbling? - Sunday, March 10, 2013 9:31 PM
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I've got a couple of pairs of banggai cardinalfish that always leave a few eggs drifting along the bottom of the tank after they spawn. I think it's possibly because the fish are still relatively small and maybe they can't fit all of them in their mouths or eat all of the extras.
 
Anyway, I'm wondering if there is any hope in possibly saving some of these eggs and trying to bring them full-term in a tumbler, or some other device. Anyone tried anything like this, or had any success, or is this plan destined for failure? I hate seeing those eggs just resting on the bottom but I've been hesitant to drop a siphon in there and disturb the fish. I've heard of some people stripping the eggs but not really much follow up on how it worked out. And I haven't heard of anyone siphoning extra eggs off the bottom of the tank.

mPedersen
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Re:Any success with egg tumbling? - Monday, March 11, 2013 12:35 AM
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In all my research for the forthcoming Banggai Rescue book, I did not have any successful incubations with eggs collected at "day zero" (that is, the day of spawning). I had one batch run up to 14 days, only to die when I fiddled with the water flow.  So it is definitely possible.
 
A water driven tumbler with a fine control for the flow (eg. a needle valve vs. ball valve) will get the tumbling part down.  My *almost* successful run was done using Methylene Blue in the water (10 drops per gallon), but I should also point out the following - I had more failures using this exact same method, and one of the new questions grown out of the research was a question of whether the egg incubations failed because of my incubation technique, or if perhaps the eggs were simply inviable from the get go (eg. doomed not to make it).  There are a LOT of new questions to be asked.
 
I say try it, you have nothing to lose.  I might also point you to Anthony Calfo's documentation from year's back, where he recorded what appears to be a successful 'day zero' to completion incubation using nothing more than a petri dish, daily water changes, and acriflavin for egg disinfection.  http://www.marinebreeder....c.php?f=140&t=6595
 
There is hope...I just simply was unable to develop a workable, repeatable method.  Then again, I may have stumbled upon the solution to the brooding problem in the first place anyways...so...(but I'll save that for the book )
 

joel1234567
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Re:Any success with egg tumbling? - Monday, March 11, 2013 9:33 AM
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Quote Originally Posted by
Then again, I may have stumbled upon the solution to the brooding problem in the first place anyways...so...(but I'll save that for the book )

 
Nice. I did get signed up for the book and am anxiously awaiting it's distribution. Maybe, being just a few miles from the publisher, I can get an advanced copy? (hint hint...) 
 
Thanks for the info, and the link. Exactly what I was looking for.