New eggs

[pissedbudgie]

My Epipedobates anthonyi have just laid a new batch of eggs, Just a week after the last batch.

I was asked if I could take pictures of the progress of the last ones, but as they were already a few days old I said I would wait for the next batch.

I intend to leave them with the male for 24hrs to ensure proper fertilisation, more of a just in case than is probably needed. I only do this as I have read that that is what others do that remove the eggs to petri dishes. I have no idea if it is actually needed, but I will do it anyway. If you have any thoughts on this practice, I would love to hear them.

After the initial 24 hrs have passed I will transfer them to a sterilised petri dish. I will use the time between now an then to setup and test my camera system/software as I hope to produce a time-lapse video of their development. I hope this will be of high enough quality that many people will find it interesting and informative. I know I could just take a series of photo's (which I will also have as the software does that at the same time), but I hope that this will be a better method and much more interesting. If anyone has tried this I would love to hear from you about any pitfalls or anything you think will be helpful to me.
I intend to take one frame every 10 minutes both day and night, the camera I am using has a built in light which I can adjust the intensity of. The camera has a maximum magnification of 200x so to help keep a perspective on size, I hope to include a scale. I have no idea how many eggs I will manage to get into the frame, but I will try to get a few just in case of duds.

With the time interval I have selected and the framerate of the final video, the video will be quite short, about 70 seconds give ot take with a frame size of 640 x 480 if I recall correctly.

I will keep you all updated on how this progresses, maybe even post a sneak peek pic or two.

This will be the first time I have attempted to do this, so I have no idea if it will work as planned.
But I hope it goes well and will be a great video and be of great use to other people.
If it works, I know I will enjoy it immensely.

[pissedbudgie]

It appears that making a time-lapse video is not going to work this time as the petri dish cover just mists up and you cannot see anything, although it would have turned out great if it had of worked going by one of the frames captured before it misted too much.
I am going to have to rethink how to do it, but for now I will just upload pics that show the progression of the eggs.

Here is one of the captured frames.



The eggs in this picture are approx 36 hours since being laid.
Including the clear part they are 4-5mm with the black center being 1.5-2mm.
The graduations on the left are millimeters.
There is also a load of "dirt" stuck to them. This is from stray eco earth that was in the film canister which I couldn't remove without damaging the eggs.

Here is a picture taken with my old camera of all of the eggs laid.



I will continue to upload pictures of the progress every few days or when there seems to be a change in them of some kind although they will have to be with my old camera.

[flybyferns]

These are great photos!
Thanks so much for taking the time.

I can't wait to see more.

[N3XU5]

Can I have some frog eggs? Just kidding.

[frogfreaks]

The photo's are fantastic!

[pissedbudgie]

Sorry for the delay, I intended to post an update yesterday, but as it was my youngest daughter's birthday (29) things got a little bit busy.

I think you will forgive me for the delay once you see the pics.

Personally I think they are better than the previous ones.

At the time these were taken it was approx 96 hours since being laid.
I will continue in the same format. A close up of a couple of eggs then a pic of them all as I think this gives the best overall representation of them.

The close up

Sorry the colour is a little washed out but it was the pic that showed the best detail.

Now the overall pic taken with that old camera.


It's amazing how much they have changed in only 4 days.

I hope the Olloclip turns up soon (I ordered it from the USA as it was so much cheaper that way even with the postage).

Anyway, I hope you like the updated pics.

[pissedbudgie]

Well here we are at almost day seven for the eggs, it is now about 160 hours since they were laid.

I think it is amazing how much more developed they are now to what they were just three days ago.

Continuing in the same format:

The close up

You can now clearly see the eyes and the tails, instead of looking like they were growing upon the black part of the egg, they now look to be a part of it.

Now the overall picture from that old camera.

I had a hard time getting anything reasonable this time.
You can now see them wriggling every now and again.

I hope you like the latest pictures.

[flybyferns]

Hi ( sorry I don't recall your name)

Wow ! Fast is right !
These are wonderful photos!
Thank you so much for taking the time to keep up with 'your' tread.

I'll be watching for more !
Lynn

[pissedbudgie]

Hi Lynn,

You probably don't remember it because I don't recall saying it or setting it in my profile, but it's Paul.

Before starting this thread or mentioning in another thread about my eggs, I had never taken any photo's of the progress at all other than from outside the viv. I have always just left them where they were laid until I saw the tadpoles at which point I would remove them to a petri dish to finish hatching before moving them.
So it has been an eye opener to me too. I had always assumed that most of the development was in the last few days, kind of in the same way that a human baby develops. Starting off development fairly slow, then very fast and slowing towards the end in visual terms, but this has just blown that out of the water so to speak.

I'm not happy with the quality of the photo's, I have seen much better photo's on here. But nothing documenting egg development like this.
The pictures really don't show as much as I would like them to, hence buying an Olloclip which hasn't arrived yet.
When I get more eggs I hope to figure out a way to be able to do a time-lapse video, but the petri dish lid misting up has me stumped at the moment.

I don't consider it my thread (or tread as you put it ), I am doing it for the benefit of everyone as much as myself. I am getting as much out of doing it as I hope others will get out of following it.

Thank you for responding. It does encourage me to continue and to continue to find a way to do the video knowing that someone is enjoying seeing the progress.

[pissedbudgie]

I almost forgot about taking pictures today, but just remembered and very quickly took these.

Day 9

Close up



And the overall pic


Sorry that one is so dark, but I forgot to charge the camera and had to grab what I could quickly.

I also did a quick video that shows one of the tadpoles moving inside the egg, if there is any interest I will upload it.

[pissedbudgie]

Here is the short video showing one of the tadpoles moving within the egg.



It's only about 30 seconds long and the 'action' happens about 20 seconds in.
Watch the tadpole right in the center.
If you look closely you can see their pink and in some cases red gills showing.