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!





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 ...





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



It's just way too exciting not to share.

[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]

Originally Posted by NorCalInvs

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?

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
looks like he's getting the job done
Oh, by the way, the egg won't candle good for a couple of weeks.... it will just candle clearish for now.

[NorCalInvs]

Originally Posted by Andrew Gilpin

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

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]

Originally Posted by 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....

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[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.