H20fwler - Air temperature and Water cooling after the eggs are laid has little detriment to the developing eggs other than slowing the hatching time. Dr. Dave Willis at SDSU and a graduate student studied the colder water affects on YP egg development and wrote about it in PBoss magazine. Actually the the colder water temperatures did not cause a significant decrease of egg hatching. My pond water temperature yesterday Apr 08 was still around 53F in NW Ohio and similar to and just slightly higher compared to the water temps of most of the egg laying. The main things that will affect egg hatch are increased siltation from watershed runoff that suffocates eggs and the location where the eggs were deposited. Best egg hatch will be if the ribbons were stretched out among old weed stems or hanging on brush or structure where moving water can circulate around the ribbon keeping eggs well oxygenated. Eggs laid in a gathered clump on the bottom has poor egg hatch except for the eggs on the outside edges of the cluster.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 04/09/25 08:24 PM.
