[trinacliff]

I've found something interesting that I would love some input on. I have a pair of imitator that have been breeding like mad lately. Five tads in the water and another seven eggs (two clutches of 4 and 3). The four eggs are all developing, but two are lagging behind...one seems like it stopped developing very early, but the other was more along than the prior and it still wiggles though it is slightly behind the others. Before, all the eggs seemed to develop at pretty much the same rate.

Also, I thought the three other eggs were not fertilized as they had not started to develop within 5 days, but now today I discovered that two, maybe three, look like they are starting to develop.

Is that strange or pretty normal? I'm keeping them exactly the same way that I've kept the prior eggs. Just wondering what other people have experienced.

Thanks and take care
Kristen

 

[JWerner]

Kristen,

Good to hear of your continued success with the imitators. What you are experiencing, I have also experienced with many specie. I have not figured out the factors though. Good sperm/weak sperm, good egg/ weak egg I suppose. At times I have thought that females will try to squeeze out too many eggs. When I use to breed dwarf monitors, similar problems were experienced by some breeders. Think of it this way: If you feed a female monitor 18 gut loaded/supplemented crickets a day, she could produce 11 good eggs but after some time you change and end up feeding 12 crickets a day. She may still lay 11 eggs, but maybe only 7-8 would be good. The 7 - 8 good ones she would lay in her burrow and pack them in with dirt etc and the other three she would deposit elsewhere, knowing they would be duds. It's pretty incredible if you ask me. Oh, I now have a male quad!

Jon Werner