that is too cool! can you tell me about your tank setup? what is a croc chow?
Mata Mata eggs
- Thread starter cwindless
- Start date
They are kept right now in a plywood pond with a pond liner. It was originally a Savannah Monitor cage, built to hold litterally 2 tons of dirt. Nothing fancy, but it works. The dimensions are 8'x4'x2', roughly 475g.
I have 2 diy bucket filters (Wendy filter) running, one with a mag drive 7 pond pump, and the other with a pond pump rated at 500gph from my local box store.
I do weekly water changes and replace 70%-80% of the water. I have been expirimenting with a method to introduce tannin rich water to the setup, using peat moss and a 96g trash can. I'm not so concerned with the pH (fortunately my tap water is already acidic), but more with the benefits of the black water. I literally make tea with the peat moss, hot tap water, and weed blocker. So almost 1/3 of the water that i change is the tea.
Mazuri Crocodile chow (formulated for crocodilians, larger turtles, and lizards) is what I use to supplement some of the missing nutrients they would normally get from gut content, and other organs that are removed from the frozen fish I feed. These guys usually only consume whole prey items and obsorb all the calcium and minerals they need from them. Some of that is stripped from being frozen, and processed for human consumption.
I have 2 diy bucket filters (Wendy filter) running, one with a mag drive 7 pond pump, and the other with a pond pump rated at 500gph from my local box store.
I do weekly water changes and replace 70%-80% of the water. I have been expirimenting with a method to introduce tannin rich water to the setup, using peat moss and a 96g trash can. I'm not so concerned with the pH (fortunately my tap water is already acidic), but more with the benefits of the black water. I literally make tea with the peat moss, hot tap water, and weed blocker. So almost 1/3 of the water that i change is the tea.
Mazuri Crocodile chow (formulated for crocodilians, larger turtles, and lizards) is what I use to supplement some of the missing nutrients they would normally get from gut content, and other organs that are removed from the frozen fish I feed. These guys usually only consume whole prey items and obsorb all the calcium and minerals they need from them. Some of that is stripped from being frozen, and processed for human consumption.
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I let it slowely truckle into the trash can until it is full. I have an aquarium heater in the water and bags of peat moss sank in the water with an air stone. I let it go for a week. Then on water change day, I add it to the water and start again.
The pond never turns dark but does get a yellow tint to it.
The pond never turns dark but does get a yellow tint to it.
Update on eggs:
It looks like they may finally be showing signs of life. They have been incubating at 84°f for a little over a month. Initially I had the humidity up at 100% by keeping them in a closed glass aquarium. A week or so ago, I cracked the glass to reduce the humidity a bit. I don't have a hygrometer in there, so I can't be certain how much it reduced. I keep forgetting to buy one when I am out and about.
Today, when checking on the eggs I noticed there are a few that I am hoping are begining to chalk. They are accumulating calcium in a circular pattern where the embryo should hopefully start to develop.
I'm hopeful this is good progress. So far they have not developed any mold, they don't have any odor, and they haven't started to yellow. At the same time there are no visible veins in the eggs either. I will continue to incubate and update at the next definitive milestone. Hopefully there will be life.
It looks like they may finally be showing signs of life. They have been incubating at 84°f for a little over a month. Initially I had the humidity up at 100% by keeping them in a closed glass aquarium. A week or so ago, I cracked the glass to reduce the humidity a bit. I don't have a hygrometer in there, so I can't be certain how much it reduced. I keep forgetting to buy one when I am out and about.
Today, when checking on the eggs I noticed there are a few that I am hoping are begining to chalk. They are accumulating calcium in a circular pattern where the embryo should hopefully start to develop.
I'm hopeful this is good progress. So far they have not developed any mold, they don't have any odor, and they haven't started to yellow. At the same time there are no visible veins in the eggs either. I will continue to incubate and update at the next definitive milestone. Hopefully there will be life.
