# The egg pot is full of surprises.



## tortadise (Apr 20, 2015)

"The egg pot" is what I call an incubation chamber that stays inside the greenhouse, with fluctuating ambient temperatures of 76 night temps to 90s high temp during the day. It's always 85-100% humidity in the greenhouse so quite moist. The egg pot consist of a 10 gallon aquarium. The bottom 4" of substrate is sand mixed with pea gravel(equal part mixture) then the remaining soil is peat moss, vermiculite, and some sand(in order of verbiage 70%-15%-15%). The purpose of the rocks/sand at the bottom is to keep the soil moist but any excess water will drain to the bottom and not stay in the soil and rot the eggs or drown the embryo. The glass aquarium is a great tank to use because you can visually see if twits too dry or too wet. Usually when water has evaporated the soil will appear dry and water level will be lower in the rock/sand bottom. So filling it commences.

Anyways enough of what it is. This guy popped up with with the top of the egg on his back. Was buried about 4" down.

Well I'll try and upload the pic later. Not working for me right now.


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## mike taylor (Apr 20, 2015)

Awesome can't wait to see it .


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## Turtlepete (Apr 20, 2015)

I really like this idea, especially since it brings naturally fluctuating temperatures during incubation, which I imagine could be beneficial. I wonder about trying it here in South FL. I have a greenhouse I could put them in. Temps right now are up into the low 90's during the afternoon high, low 70's during the night. Hmmm…


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## wellington (Apr 20, 2015)

I like the egg pot idea, scared me for a second though, thought you had a egg pit like cooking on the stove
Can't wait to see the little one and which kind it is.


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## bouaboua (Apr 20, 2015)

Sure sounds awesome. Looking forward to your update with photos.


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## tortadise (Apr 21, 2015)

Turtlepete said:


> I really like this idea, especially since it brings naturally fluctuating temperatures during incubation, which I imagine could be beneficial. I wonder about trying it here in South FL. I have a greenhouse I could put them in. Temps right now are up into the low 90's during the afternoon high, low 70's during the night. Hmmm…


Works fantastic. Currently it has some lobatse ova, Chaco, Redfoots, Yellowfoots and some pancakes in it. When the Manouria lay I use two separate 10 gallon tanks just for those eggs. They hatch out sucked up ready to go and very robust active.


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## tortadise (Apr 21, 2015)

Ok it worked. I didn't disturb this one at all. Funny how it was 4" down and this is what happens when they surface.


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## Turtlepete (Apr 21, 2015)

tortadise said:


> Works fantastic. Currently it has some lobatse ova, Chaco, Redfoots, Yellowfoots and some pancakes in it. When the Manouria lay I use two separate 10 gallon tanks just for those eggs. They hatch out sucked up ready to go and very robust active.



I like the idea because I feel like it would help with the flies. I've had a huge problem with them lately.


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## tortadise (Apr 21, 2015)

Turtlepete said:


> I like the idea because I feel like it would help with the flies. I've had a huge problem with them lately.


Yep. Especially with Yellowfoots and Manouria filed will devastate an entire clutch of Manouria.


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## Turtlepete (Apr 21, 2015)

tortadise said:


> Yep. Especially with Yellowfoots and Manouria filed will devastate an entire clutch of Manouria.



I understand the Manouria are soft-shelled like crocodiles and therefore more susceptible to eggs, but why the Yellowfoots?

I'm just about tempted to move all the eggs out of my incubator and give this a shot. Not much to lose. I've lost a lot of eggs this year. Never been a problem before, don't know whats going on this year. :-/


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## tortadise (Apr 21, 2015)

Turtlepete said:


> I understand the Manouria are soft-shelled like crocodiles and therefore more susceptible to eggs, but why the Yellowfoots?
> 
> I'm just about tempted to move all the eggs out of my incubator and give this a shot. Not much to lose. I've lost a lot of eggs this year. Never been a problem before, don't know whats going on this year. :-/


Not too sure on the Yellowfoots to be honest, for some reason the gnats go crazy for them too. I recall @Yvonne G stating the same thing with her yellowfoot eggs as well. They will get all brown and nasty looking lots of gnats and then boom they still hatch. It's weird. I only have on had issues with gnats and flies with infertile or bad eggs.


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## AmRoKo (Apr 21, 2015)

This tank incubation is really cool, thanks for sharing!


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## tortadise (Apr 27, 2015)

Another egg pot. Really just an ambient incubation tub. But this one isn't as extravagant per say the ones in the greenhouse. This one just has soil at the bottom and 5-6" of vermiculite. Chunkers be hatching. Big guys 40-60 grammers right out of the egg.


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## N2TORTS (Apr 27, 2015)

Very Nice ....Kelly!....Lot's of popping at the Cove' Too~


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## tortadise (Apr 27, 2015)

N2TORTS said:


> Very Nice ....Kelly!....Lot's of popping at the Cove' Too~


Fantastic as always. Lots of cooking and lots of pipping.


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## Anyfoot (Apr 28, 2015)

tortadise said:


> "The egg pot" is what I call an incubation chamber that stays inside the greenhouse, with fluctuating ambient temperatures of 76 night temps to 90s high temp during the day. It's always 85-100% humidity in the greenhouse so quite moist. The egg pot consist of a 10 gallon aquarium. The bottom 4" of substrate is sand mixed with pea gravel(equal part mixture) then the remaining soil is peat moss, vermiculite, and some sand(in order of verbiage 70%-15%-15%). The purpose of the rocks/sand at the bottom is to keep the soil moist but any excess water will drain to the bottom and not stay in the soil and rot the eggs or drown the embryo. The glass aquarium is a great tank to use because you can visually see if twits too dry or too wet. Usually when water has evaporated the soil will appear dry and water level will be lower in the rock/sand bottom. So filling it commences.
> 
> Anyways enough of what it is. This guy popped up with with the top of the egg on his back. Was buried about 4" down.
> 
> Well I'll try and upload the pic later. Not working for me right now.


This is an excellent idea, practical,economical and natural. Love it. I will be picking your brains on this in the near future.
So if you have eggs going in and out of the egg pot all the time, when will you be able to clean it out, does it need cleaning out, can you just clean small areas at a time.


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## tortadise (Apr 28, 2015)

Anyfoot said:


> This is an excellent idea, practical,economical and natural. Love it. I will be picking your brains on this in the near future.
> So if you have eggs going in and out of the egg pot all the time, when will you be able to clean it out, does it need cleaning out, can you just clean small areas at a time.


So far I have just left the substrate as is. I try and remove the egg pieces as best I can. But when the Manouria get ready to lay this summer I will probably do a fresh newer one. Since they have more of a chance the gnats getting to them, but that's why I utilized and started the egg pot method, to mitigate pesky gnats.


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## Anyfoot (Apr 28, 2015)

tortadise said:


> So far I have just left the substrate as is. I try and remove the egg pieces as best I can. But when the Manouria get ready to lay this summer I will probably do a fresh newer one. Since they have more of a chance the gnats getting to them, but that's why I utilized and started the egg pot method, to mitigate pesky gnats.


So did I understand you right, you have more than one species of egg in the egg pot.


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## tortadise (Apr 28, 2015)

Anyfoot said:


> So did I understand you right, you have more than one species of egg in the egg pot.


Yep.


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## Tidgy's Dad (Apr 28, 2015)

Fascinating stuff, as always.
Thanks.


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