>Roy and Cary have underlined an observation I had forgotten. The best
>results I have ever had with egg donations have been with wet mops sent in
>double plastic bags - maybe we need to rethink egg shipment technique? I
>seem to remember Adrian Tappin doing some tests on longevity of eggs kept
>in mops out of water a long time back. Perhaps he can refresh our
>(collective) memory.
I have trialed a few different methods for shipping eggs for reasons we wont
go into at this time ;-). I have found that eggs kept in a damp mop (without
water)and packed in a shipping bag such as the way we ship live fish will
give you a good hatch rate if the shipping time is within the hatching
period. I have also tried shipping eggs layered between damp paper towels
presoaked in a methlylene blue solution. The results from these trials have
varied.
I hadn't previously entered this debate because I have had the same problem
with shipped eggs and unfortunately, do not know the answer. I do know that
eggs shipped in water without some form of packing will mostly fail to hatch
as I think the eggs get damaged by swishing around in the container. Another
reason eggs may fail to hatch after being shipped without water is that the
egg casing may harden preventing the fry from hatching out. Some success has
been achieved by placing the eggs in distilled water on arrival to soften
the outer casing, but that cant be proven at this time? It may well be some
osmotic influence?
However, the interesting fact is that some eggs do survive while others don't,
and most of the eggs continue to develop even though they fail to hatch?
I will keep trying and if I stumble across a solution I will let everyone know.
Maybe we need to talk to some killiefish experts?
With eggs that are airfreighted across International borders they can be
subjected to a number of uncontrollable influences. You all know the story
about the little train engine - all I can say is keep trying ;-)
Personally, for people in Countries that allow importation I suggest you
ship live fish and forget about eggs.
Adrian T.
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Adrian R. Tappin
atappin at ecn.net.au
http://www.ecn.net.au/~atappin/home.htm
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