# Egg Tumbler Question



## mcklnjr (May 22, 2008)

Whats up guys, i recently got my hands on an egg tumbler. I set it up last night, the eggs from my yellow labs are tumbling perfect. I understand that sometimes the eggs will rot, due to not being fertilized, just curious if i am looking for the yellow egg to turn white. Basically i am just curious if anyone knows the first signs of egg rot, it seems like two of them are starting to lean that way.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

The eggs will change color usually to white first and then to various shades of grey/brown as they die. These eggs should be removed immediately to avoid fungal contamination of the eggs that are still viable.


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## mcklnjr (May 22, 2008)

Thanks for the quick reply dave, any good advice on how to remove them carefully. I don't have a turkey baster.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

Go buy a turkey baster.


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## mcklnjr (May 22, 2008)

haha true story..thanks for helping
.


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## igetbombed1977 (Feb 5, 2007)

Great information!

I had no clue that some of the eggs would die, and I too just bought a tumbler. So I will keep this in mind when it's time. Thanks


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## walleye (Aug 20, 2007)

If you can wait 5-7 days, until there is a head and tail, you should have better results. When I strip, I like to wait that 1 week to make sure they are good.

Steve


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

Sometimes they all die because they just were not fertilized. This usually occurs within 3 days.

Stripping is something that I only do as needed. I do not like removing females from breeding groups so I wait until the fry are nearly fully formed and strip at that point. On occassion I have to tumble for a week, but not often. The earlier you strip the higher your losses.


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## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

I gather mbuna do pretty well with being tumbled, relative to some other fish. My only experience with this came recently when I stripped a female I was sure had been holding for at least 3 weeks, and to my surprise out came nothing but eggs! (Obviously I got the wrong female). I didn't have a tumbler and decided to see how the eggs would fare if I just put them in a bare 10g tank with a hob with a sponge pre-filter over the intake. With the current the eggs gravitated to a spot on the bottom just beneath the filter intake and stayed there, with just a modest amount of rather irregular rocking motion. The intake reached to less than 2" from the bottom.

After a week of this the fry started to emerge. Out of 38 eggs, 2 rotted and the other 36 "hatched". I decided to grow on this spawn, and about 6 weeks later I count 32 fry - not sure when the other 4 disappeared but I know they hatched as I did a headcount when they all still had yolksacs... either way I was pleasantly surprised at the survival rate given the crude method used.


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## redstallion02 (Jan 17, 2008)

I have been stripping my females too early on purpose so I have been tumbling various eggs in my home made tumbler.

The eggs that are not fertilized seem to begin to float on thier own. I am not sure if this is because of my set up or what. The eggs that are fertilized are just gently rocking on the bottom but the others begin to float after a few days and they seperate themselves on thier own.

I have had one batch where they got the fungus and they all grouped together, but they were 2 day old eggs and I am guessing none were fertilized.

I too wondered how people seperated the fungus covered ones, but after seeing mine do it on thier own, I thought that is how everyone did it.

(the reason for me stripping so fast was because I was trying to get syno multipuntatus)


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

redstallion02 said:


> (the reason for me stripping so fast was because I was trying to get syno multipuntatus)


 You still do not have to strip too early. The synos will hatch first and start eating the other eggs.


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## igetbombed1977 (Feb 5, 2007)

Ok,

So my firefish had eggs this weekend, and I stripped them. They are in my egg tumbler now. Can someone post a link for a tutorial for how to remove the eggs that die? I want more info on the turkey baster. Please help.


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## mcklnjr (May 22, 2008)

I don't really have a tutorial , but it was pretty simple, i just turned my egg tumblers air supply off. Took the tumbler out with eggs inside, moved it into a small container filled with the same tank water. Basically you squeeze all the air out of the baster before submerging it into the tumbler. Lightly let go to let some water in at the specific egg you want to get ,and move the egg to another container. Sometimes you will get extra eggs or fry. But you can easily move them back.


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## knotty dreadlocks (Oct 31, 2008)

so when the eggs are not fertilized or have fungus growth on them the eggs will turn white correct or would just part of the egg be white. i just striped about 20+ eggs from my jalo reef and this is the first time i had to tumble the eggs.


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## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

The whole egg turns white.


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## HDrydr (Mar 22, 2010)

I've had many many eggs and I've stripped several times, my Metriaclima Estherae female and one other female that passed and I had to strip the eggs. I also gathered up eggs that my Melanchromis Auratus spit out....

The one from the Metriaclima female I hand tumbled in a corner of a bare tank and I waved a spoon over the eggs and they hatched and did extremely well.

The other female that passed I did the same deal and all hatched

The batch from my Melanochromis must not have been fertilized I tried to tumble them but that was her first batch so I didn't know if they were good or bad. They turned a weird off white then looked unstable?? then furry then collapsed... I used the turkey baster couple of times worked great but in the end I removed all of them....

I have not had to tumble since I remove the holding female into a holding tank until she's ready. But I have found info on how to make a egg tumbler on the net... I have not trialed it but seems to work well.

I may get the chance this time around my Orange Blotched Metriaclima Zebra is holding again!


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