Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My recent clutch of ackies - this is seven out of the eight that were in the clutch...

Thanks for looking...

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Phil Black
www.VaranusWeb.com

Nice ackies! May I ask how long did it take to incubate those eggs and what were the temps like? Better yet, Email me at Omar@comcast.net
You see I will be giving a shot at breeding ackies soon and I would like to know as much as possible. So please try to email me and if possible send me pics of the incubator. I'ld really appreciate it if you did so.
Thanks!

Hi Omar,

I will send you some pics...but here are the basics...

Eight eggs were laid on 5/11/04. I put them in vermiculite with a 5:4 verm/water ratio by weight. I use covered boxes (Rubbermaid Stainguard containers) with about 2" of the verm/water mixture. I drill just two small holes in opposite corners of the box lid - the temperature probe (Atkins Thermocouple Thermometer probe) goes in one hole, and is taped to the lid so that the tip is just barely above the eggs. The other hold is for a bit of ventilation.

I incubated them in a Helix incubator (I don't think they are available now, but any incubator will do as long as it holds steady temps) and incubated them at 86.5 degrees F. They hatched between 8/12/04 (late PM) and the morning of 8/14/04 - I haven't figured out the days, but around 3 months. I have hatched ackies at both higher and lower temps, but this is the first time I got 100% hatch with no runts.

I'll shoot you a couple of photos of the egg boxes and incubator. I just built a nice incubator for a friend of mine, so if you need one I can show you how to build a killer one for around $200.

Hope this helps...

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Phil Black
www.VaranusWeb.com

Thanks! The info really helped me out.
And about the incubator plans, that would be great! I really appreciate this.
Thanks again!