A good day for the U. phantasticus

[Salzy]

Only two major events, but both exciting ones today....

I randomly shifted around some leaves and mosses in the phantasticus cage today, not really expecting to find anything, but lo and hehold....an egg!

http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Gekkonidazed/U%20phantasticus/IMG_6102watermarked800x600.jpg

http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Gekkonidazed/U%20phantasticus/IMG_6104watermarked800x600.jpg

This is the first one one we've found that looks "normal" and fertile. All we've ever had before were duds/slugs. I'm not sure if it is even a good egg, since it was laid single, but we're still going to incubate for sure! It looks perfect, so we'll keep our fingers crossed.


We were out for a bit tonight and when we came home and went to feed the geckos, this is what I saw :D ...

http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Gekkonidazed/U%20phantasticus/IMG_6111watermarked800x600.jpg

http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Gekkonidazed/U%20phantasticus/IMG_6117watermarked800x600.jpg

I haven't seen this happen with our satanics in almost 3 years. We're feeling pretty lucky today. :) Hopefully good things will continue to come our way with them.

Here is the pair in non-copulatory fashion

http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Gekkonidazed/U%20phantasticus/IMG_4906watermarked800x392.jpg

It's just way too exciting not to share. :D

[NorCalInvs]

I think that deserves a bit of Boo-yak-a-shaw and Boom-sha-laka-ya indeed. Congratz!

Oh and those are rediculously good pics too.

[Andrew Gilpin]

Oh and those are rediculously good pics too.
Funny to think that just last night he was trying to tell me he couldn't take photos worth a crap huh? :rolleyes:

Nice work guys. My only suggestion would be to get that phant egg up off the superhatch as soon as possible. Cut out a little piece of foam to set in there or put it on a little section of wire mesh or something to keep it up off the substrate. Our hatch rate definitely increased and hatchling mortality decreased after we moved ours up off of the substrate.
Knew we should have kept that male :eek:
looks like he's getting the job done :cool:
Oh, by the way, the egg won't candle good for a couple of weeks.... it will just candle clearish for now.

[NorCalInvs]

Funny to think that just last night he was trying to tell me he couldn't take photos worth a crap huh? :rolleyes:

They look pretty darn good to me for sure, lol.

[that_girl]

Andrew - Kyle emailed Lawrence the other night and he said to keep it directly on the substrate. ;)

[Andrew Gilpin]

Well, he's certainly hatched out more than I have.... but generally hard shelled eggs don't fare so well in direct contact with moisture because they can't expand like softer shelled eggs. I definitely noticed an increased hatch rate by taking them off of the substrate....

[Debbie]

Congrats on the breeding and the egg!
We also keep our eggs off the substrate, it's our first time breeding Uroplatus though.
We keep the eggs in a bottle cap with dry substrate and put that on the moist substrate.

[Salzy]

Well, he's certainly hatched out more than I have.... but generally hard shelled eggs don't fare so well in direct contact with moisture because they can't expand like softer shelled eggs. I definitely noticed an increased hatch rate by taking them off of the substrate....

Congrats on the breeding and the egg!
We also keep our eggs off the substrate, it's our first time breeding Uroplatus though.
We keep the eggs in a bottle cap with dry substrate and put that on the moist substrate.

This is the same thing that I thought about Uroplatus eggs as well. I emailed Lawrence the other night when I found the U. sikorae eggs and that's what he said. I'm not sure which route to go to be honest. I trust his judgement, but I also trust your's too.

If I can find a good way to get it off the substrate, I will probably do so. I don't feel entirely comfortable having it on the substrate either. :o

[umop_apisdn]

Well, as you probably know, I kept my satanic eggs on moist perlite and had a near-100% hatch rate (only 1 egg ever failed to hatch, but there was a nearly fully-formed but slightly deformed embryo inside).

Of course, given the chance, I would go back and experiment a little, so I definitely can't knock the sponge idea, and know several other people who had good luck with it. I think the key to direct substrate contact is just having it barely moist to the touch.

One key thing to remember is that hard-shelled eggs are more water-resistant than soft-shelled eggs, so they tend to be a little more dry resistant than the soft-shelled eggs.

[Salzy]

Mmm...hmmmm....so you guys just totally made it way harder to know which route to go. ;)

[Andrew Gilpin]

Mmm...hmmmm....so you guys just totally made it way harder to know which route to go. ;)

I think Mike's statement about the substrate barely being damp is key if you're going to place it directly on the substrate.... In my case, I left the eggs on superhatch that was as moist as I use it for rhacodactylus eggs ( which is the same as what you have the egg pictured on) and for me, I think that's too wet to have a hard shelled on in direct contact.... Maybe if you dry the substrate out a bit it will work well, but the idea behind lifting the egg off of the substrate ( or putting it on dry substrate in a moistened substrate container as Debbie suggested) is it's easier to maintain what is going on in the container and leaves fewer chances of it coming in direct contact with too much moisture.... I still had 90% of the phantasticus eggs hatch when directly on the substrate, however they didn't seem to hatch out quite as large or do as well as the ones that soon followed that had been kept off of the substrate.

[Sarah Gilpin]

Hey guys, I am just getting around to seeing this post! What a nice surprise! It's nice to know that the male is for sure getting the deed done ;):)

[Gecko Ranch]

Giving it some more thought, Lawrence's method probably more closely simulates what happens in nature. Eggs are probably laid on the ground, and it makes sense that the ground has some moisture in it. Due to the hard-calcified nature of the egg it probably gets good air circulation and resists getting too much moisture like Mike suggests.

Having known Lawrence and seen his breeding results for many years I would definitely duplicate his methods! You could also set some up on caps like Debbie does Kyle. I use the cap on top of Superhatch method for almost all of my hard-calcified eggs like Phelsuma.

[calfirecap]

Hi guys!
Phenomenal pics and without a doubt, that is a good egg. Well done in all respects! It's not typical, but it's not uncommon either for a female to lay just one egg. Usually when there is just one egg it is slightly larger than when there is just one.

Yes, I do place the eggs directly on the substrate and I don't know the hatch rate, but for eggs that look as good as that one it's very high. I've tried the bottle cap method, but I went back to direct substrate contact with APS because it worked. Everyone I put in caps this winter is overdue. I'm certain that Andrew's method would work, but I'm equally certain that what you have set up is just fine. Personally I would leave it as is, monitor the humidity and container weight. Add water about every 4 weeks to bring up the weight to the original weight, and don't let it get too hot.

When an egg gets exposed to too much moisture it gets kind of a glossy appearance and the hatch rate goes way down. Yours looks just fine.

Lawrence