Posted: October 19 2006 at 6:11pm | IP Logged

I thought since i have had quite a few people pm me lately on here and a couple of other forums asking about incubators i would finally pull my finger out and do a post on it , that way i don't have to keep repeating myself and it frees up more time to do more important things such as discuss my personal sexual habits on the forum.

The 2 most common types of incubator (well that i know of anyway) are the hammock style incubator of which there is instructions on how to make it here and the one that i use which is the one that Ray Gabriel developed and wrote an article on in the August 2005 BTS journal entitled "An improved method of artificial incubation". Definitely worth a read as it will make far more sense than my ramblings .

This incubator allows egg sacks to be removed from around the 10 day point (except for Asian burrowing species which should be left for 21 days)and to make it all you will need is a small Kritter keeper/Petpal tank (2nd smallest size preferably), a tupperware tub (with lid) that fits in the tank , some voil or cut up a pair of tights and either packing tape or normal selotape.

To make the main part of the incubator you will need a section of voil or material from a pair of tights that covers the top of the tupperware tub. I prefer to use the nylon from a pair of tights as i and a few other people i've spoken to have found that small nymphs seemed to get caught in the voil and have trouble moulting properly.

Cut the lid of the tub so all that remains is the rim then fill the tub to about 3/4 full of water. Next put the voil/nylon over the top of the tub so it is flat and then put the rim of the lid on to hold it in place.

All you have to do then is tape up the holes in lid of the Kritter keeper/Petpal with packing tape or normal selotape leaving a couple of tiny holes if you wish (best taping it from the inside of the lid) to keep the humidity up and then place some paper towels/kitchen roll in the bottom of the tank (i wet the towels first as i find they shape themselves to the bottom of the tank then). The paper towels are to soak up any condensation which will stop any nymphs from drowning if they crawl out the incubator.

Now all thats left is to put the incubator inside the Kritter keeper/Petpal and microwave the whole lot for about 1 min 30 sec to sterilize it. Once it has cooled down you can then empty the contents of the egg sack onto the incubator.

Once all the eggs/nymphs are on the incubator just spread them out so none are on top of each other , stick the lid on the tank and keep it at the same temperature that the mothers enclosure is at.

There hopefully that will help some people , now i can get back to locking the wife in her gimp box and eating poo

Posted: October 20 2006 at 1:09pm | IP Logged

Longimanus wrote: Awesome post, thank you cossor. Couple questions, 1. What is voil? 2. Do you not leave any of the holes free in the lid of the kritter keeper? That means absolutely no ventilation? 3. When you remove the eggsac after 10 days, do you just put the whole eggsac on the nylon? Or do you open it and pour the eggs onto the nylon? What about turning the sac? Is that necessary? Thanks in advance!

1. Voil is a net type material that looks like this

2. I leave a couple of tiny holes in the lid although its not really necessary.

3. The incubator is designed so that you can empty the contents of the sack out onto it. You can also just put the whole egg sack onto the incubator and turn it a few times a day.

Posted: June 07 2008 at 9:56am | IP Logged

Will try that for when i breed my female  Cyriocosmus Elegan next years as prevoius owner has already bred her this year and future Cyphonisia sp hoping to get a breeding pair in a few weeks. 

Posted: July 17 2008 at 2:40am | IP Logged

Great topic Cossor

Now here is my question would you incubate the eggs? or would you leave it for the female to do?

Posted: July 17 2008 at 9:54am | IP Logged

Will have to have a go at breeding my mature female Cyriocosmus elegansTrinidad Dwarf Tiger when she molts as she hasen't eaten in a while since i got her.

So possible molt sometime soon that's what seller said.