# Article: Home made incubator. Egg tumbler by Ssssssspit_Fire



## Ssssssspit_Fire (May 30, 2005)

*Building a home made incubator (egg tumbler) by Ssssssspit_Fire*

*Introduction:*

A lot of people deliberate with the question weather they should spread their holding female or not. This article will explain how to build an excellent incubator that will achieve high surviving rates among eggs and larvae.

*Why do we REALLY need an incubator*

The purpose of the incubator is to gently whirl the eggs and larvae, this action imitates the action of the mother while she is holding the eggs and larvae in her mouth. Why don't we let the mother do this herself?
There are 3 main reasons:


1. Getting higher survival rates, statistics shows that when you spread a holding female in the earlier stage of the "holding" you get more eggs/larvae than you would have gotten if you'd let the female release the fry herself
2. If you spread the holding female survival rates of fry goes up in hundrerds %, beacause the fry doesn't need to deal with all the other grown up fish that are in the tank.
3. To ease the whole process for the female. A female that is holding month after month after month etc' gets really weakend. She does not eat for a time period of 21-28 days (depends of the species of the fish). This way, the female grows to bigger sizes and live longer.

*So how do we build this thing?*
Supply needed:
Big plastic "Coca-Cola" bottle
Aquarium silicone
Window net (mosquito  net)
Rubber hose
L shaped plastic part
plastic valve
Small 300 lp/h power head

The reason I decided to use a "Coca-Cola" bottle is beacuse it's best (because it's shpe) to this purpose.
There is the bottle:









Cut off the bottom of the bottle:









After we did that, we need to cut inside the bottle a "window (the purpose of the window is to allow water to get outside of the bottle):









After that, take the window net and and glue it to the bottle using the silicone:









After that we will take a small piece of the window net and glue it just a little bit above the opening of the bottle (from the inside of the bottle). (*Please notice! This is a very critical part, it is very important to glue the window net gently so either the silicone or either the window net won't stick out, not even a little bit. This is a major factor of eggs/larvae survival.*

















After that we will take the cap if the bottle and we will make a hole in it in order the plastic shaped L will fit:



























After that we will prepare the "plumbing" that will fit the power head > the valve> the bottle (I used diffarent diameters because it had to fit the power head, the valve and also the plastic shaped L.










The power head chosen for this purpose is Atman 300 lp/h.










Another majot factor of eggs survival is keeping the inside the bottle clean. In order to keep the inside of the bottle clean I took the power head cup and I put some filter wool inside:



















After that make a little hole in the upper part of the bottle (where we taken off the bottom) and install a small vacuum grabber so the bottle won't take a little hike inside the tank 










And it's supposed to look like this:










In action:



















Good luck!
Yours, Ssssssspit_Fire


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## Craiger7 (Apr 29, 2005)

Very cool.....and great work! You put some thought into that setup. thanks for sharing.


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## cichlidi_fan (Feb 8, 2005)

Yep thansk very much! I will make some and for my  :thumb:


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## Namor (Dec 5, 2003)

Thanks for taking the time to post..I will have to copy this one!


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## Ripple (Jan 2, 2002)

Great DIY project. We hope to have it included in our Library in the near future.


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## phillipcollis (Aug 28, 2008)

Hi

Have you worked out the flow rate required compaired to power head..In tank looks like full flow through bottle..I do my brine shrimp in same bottle with air in bottom...

Cheers Phill Collis

www.newzealanddiscus.co.nz

Now about 15 types of Africans...


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