Jcp Eggs Need Help!

My female jungle just laid eggs this past Monday. Monday and Tuesday they looked great. I have them in a Hova-Bator Incubator with water in the reservior and the perferated screen top with the eggs on top of an egg carton, they were pulled from her at the end so all eggs are stuck together. Just yesterday they started dimpling in with temps between 87-89 and humidity sustaining at 85%. Are these eggs suffering from too much humidity or too little? I put a wet towel and a cup of water in their, including the water in the reservior. Last night we pulled the towel and cup out and the humidity was sustaining at 80%, no change in the dimples, still the same. If you have any ideas please let me know.

Thanks,
Cassandra

on a substrate such as Vermiculite??? or Perlite?? Try spraying them with a plant spray bottle.. Sounds like it is not humid enough.. I used the hovabator with rubbermaid shoe boxes and vermiculite, with no problems, i left the lid on the boxes and opened them a couple times a week for fresh air exchange!!1 Good luck keep us informed how they are doing. Send some pics!!! Mike L.

IMO, the hovabator is a poor choice for incubating your eggs. the size and number of eggs require a container that is too large to be easily held in such a small container, as the heating element and controller come down too far. it sounds as if you do not have the eggs inside a separate container however, which will make keeping proper humidity next to impossible. since you already have the eggs, try to find some sort of try/container - about 2 inches of damp vermiculite in the bottom, and put the eggs in that (the bottom eggs about half buried in the vermiculite). since you will probably not get a cover to fit, you will want to put something over the eggs to keep the moisture - I have seen heavy plastic used when allowing maternal incubation, but would be concerned with the proximity to the heating element (melting plastic). maybe foil? if you have a proportional thermostat, you could make a functional incubator quickly with a cooler - I made mine in about 1/2 hour, cuz I waited til the last minute (I know: I suck, and I know better). if not, you could build an "addition" to your hobavator. get some styrofoam (and duct tape) and create a spacer between the base and cover. this will allow you to get an appropriate sized container inside. it won't be pretty, but it might be enough to see this clutch through to hatching.

I used a styrofoam fish box to make my hovabator deeper so I could make room for containers with eggs in them.

I got 2 shoeboxes to fit in my hovabator, i used a 4 inch spacer made from fish box insulation (styrofoam). That way you can keep your humidity up at the right level, but you have to have a substrate for the eggs to be placed in to keep moist!!!

Thanks for all your help guys. I took the advice in finding a plastic container and put moist perlite in it with the eggs on top. I covered it with foil. Last night they still looked the same but I will let you know how they improve over the next few days. They have no discoloration or stinky smell yet. Yes, I will post some pics of the babies once they hatch. here is a picture of the female and male together. Nevermind, I have to resize my photo. What software can help me with that?

Cassandra

works good, there are all kinds you can download...Mike

can you give me some?