Ooth Size- Important or not

[Termite48]

I have been interested in the importance of size of the ooth in the overall hatch count of a given species. I know there is not enough general concern over this matter to have any reliable stats available, but if there is any one that has ideas about this, please share. Also there is a story lately that an Orchid female from one of our members was in the near 3" in length range. This sold for a price of over $100 to one of the members ( I presume). If there is any verification of this from a reader, please confirm this and share with us the result of incubating this large ooth. Also please share with us the hatch count. I know that diet, overall health, environment, and other minor factors influences the laying of oothecae, the size of it, the quality of the hatchlings, their vigor after the hatch, and some things which I am not mentioning. If any of you read this and have thoughts to share that are based on real knowledge and/or experience, please do so. We will benefit from your sharing.

 

[sally]

I didn't have the ooth that sold for 100.00 lol darn. This is my first ever Orchid ooth... So here it is for comparison, if it hatches I will put the hatch # in.

 

[Toxic]

From orchids the biggest hatch I've had is 174 nymphs it hatched over a 3 days and not a single stuck nymph. Ootheca was around 6 cm. I also had a few smaller hatches from 4.5 -5 cm hatching 150 from same female. So in my case size does matter. Although incubation is still key if you balls that up you'll be lucky to get any or most will get stuck.

 

[wuwu]

From orchids the biggest hatch I've had is 174 nymphs it hatched over a 3 days and not a single stuck nymph. Ootheca was around 6 cm. I also had a few smaller hatches from 4.5 -5 cm hatching 150 from same female. So in my case size does matter. Although incubation is still key if you balls that up you'll be lucky to get any or most will get stuck.

wow i didn't know orchids had such a huge hatch rate.

 

[Toxic]

My 174 is the largest hatch I've heard off before that it was 150 something. Obv I've not seen or heard everyone's hatch rate I'm sure someone has got more. All I know is my missus went mad when she saw 174 nymphs in little tubs dint help that I had a few orchids laying and had another large hatch 1 week later. Thought she was going to kill me haha.

 

[Paradoxica]

Well just to throw a wrench into this discussion, I've gotta bring up ooth size in Sibylla Pretiosa. The smaller one in this photo hatched +30 so I thought that the big one would be at least 50-60. It ended up hatching less than 10 (with identical incubation to the other ooths). I would say that this was a fluke, but Agent A warned me that the big ones hatch less nymphs than the small ones.

 

[Termite48]

I have heard statements like that before, that the larger ones bring about smaller hatches. It does not seem logical if all other things are equal like , 1) being the same female, at nearest ooth order, 2) same diet 3) same incubation parameters, 4) same stress levels, 5) same container. It just seems like the larger ooth should contain more eggs. I know that the ooth size is made of more than eggs, it is the outer foamy substance that can make it bulky. Why would the same female in the same conditions place fewer eggs in a larger ooth?

Thanks for the sharing so far. Let us keep it going and settle this matter for now.

 

[scytheclaw]

from my experiences ive found the really large ooths to be less productive but as mentioned depends on species ive had good and bad yields from each end of scale

 

[Rick]

In my experience the larger the ooth the more nymphs will come out of it compared to an ooth of the same species. Common sense says this should be the case.

 

[Termite48]

Rick and I have similar backgrounds educationally I believe and the logic in this area of study is that which he states above. If there is "in practice" evidence to the contrary, that is what we need to see written. There are other factors like the age of the female when she lays a large ooth that hatches a small number. There are even cases where the ooth may have been larger, but something stopped the female in mid lay, so she continues her laying a day or two later. Things like this can happen, but the norm is what needs to be determined.

 

[Precarious]

All I can say is I've had gigantic ooths that people said wouldn't hatch but they did, and large numbers of nymphs at that. In my experience that rumor is a myth.

Conversely I've had large ooths that hatch next to nothing and small ones that hatches way more than you'd expect.

The fact of the matter is the bulk of the ooth's size for most species is the foam material protecting the ova. Sure, there is a better chance of more ova in a large ooth but there are no guarantees. The ration of ova:foam varies from individual to individual. A better predictor would be weight as the ova are higher mass than the foam.

Regarding Orchids specifically, their ooths are more random than any other species I've dealt with. Some hatch, some don't. Some hatch 80 nymphs, some only 10. Size seems to make no difference.

 

[patrickfraser]

Bigger is always better. :lol: