Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I know many people are of the school of thought that moldy eggs won't usually affect healthy eggs next to them. I know others that will go to extreme length to kill mold and separate eggs etc.

I have personally seen it go both ways. I have hatched great clutches with a gross moldy egg attached to the pile, and I have seen fertile clutches go green one after the other.

At the moment I have a clutch of anthill python eggs with a rotten one attached and the mold is just starting to spread to an adjacent and definitely fertile egg. I have tried some lotrimin powder with no results.

Just curious what you guys do.

Tinactin on a q-tip helped stave off the mold from spreading last year on three obviously moldy, bad eggs in a clutch of 12. They were to stuck to separate.
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Todd Hughes

I am more worried about the knats than mold.
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Signature edited

Hi Zack, pythons are what taught me that holding eggs too long will impact them in a negative way. In fact, it can and will kill healthy fertile eggs.

Heres one of my pygmy python females with eggs.

Yours sound like the eggs were already dead or weak. Again, I could be wrong, but that is what it sounds like. I most cases if the eggs are dead and fertile, the female will not coil around them or attempt to incubate them. Did your female try to incubate these eggs?
Cheers

Yeah she did coil around all of them except one obvious slug. All the eggs looked great at laying. One went downhill in the first week. I candled the ones around it and they are fertile. The mold has now spread to three surounding eggs and I have started to wipe it off and use lotrimin powder.

And I agree about the handling. I sterilize my entire incubator and all the containers etc that will be in contact with the eggs. I only touch the eggs to put them in the incubator and I wash my hands well before touching them. Thats why I am so hesitant to do anything about the mold, I almost feel like opening the container and messing with them every few days is just as bad for the clutch as just letting the mold go and seeing how many I end up with.