DIY Egg Tumbler

If any has that problem of the clowns or what ever else eating you eggs, then here's a different way around things. You need to siphon the eggs out. I use a straw and some airline tubing. The straw is cut to a point so that it's easier to scrape the eggs off the rocks.

Here's the process of making an egg tumbler.

Parts needed

2L bottle
Rigid Airline Tubing
Airline Tubing
Air Pump
Scissors
Glue of your choice.

You'll also want to make a stand for it so that you can attach an air line to the tubing. I used left over 2X4 that I had laying around.

First get a 2L bottle and cut it at about the 1/3 mark.



now they have a little dot on the bottom right in the middle. This is important so remember this.



Also don't forget the cap. It's definitely a pare you can't do this without.



Here is pretty much everything you need.



Like I said this little dot is important. Drill it out. Make sure that it's about the size of your rigid tubing.



Next drill out the cap. Try to get as close to the center as you can.



Cut the rigid tubing about an inch outside the cap.



On the other side of the cap you want the tubing to be as flush as possible so that eggs don't get trapped below it.



The start applying glue. I had to do it a few times till I was comfortable with the seal it made.



Here it is with the cap attached to the bottle top

Next you want to see how it fits back inside the bottom part of the bottle you have. The rigid tubing is to go through the hole you made earliler



This was just to test it out to see what height I needed



Here's the stand I made. I had to put little pieces inside the frame for the bottle to sit on while still being held up.



It's a good fit!



Here it is up and going with the airline going through a little hole that I drilled in the 2X4



Here's a closeup of the eggs bouncing around. You don't want it to be to violent so that you don't kill them, but enough to keep them moving in the bottle.

Do you need the Glock 21 mags as well to hold the bottle up as you make it? (cant really make out the manufacturer or caliber, just my best guess)

How long does it take for the eggs to hatch this way?

still around 8 days.

What is the outside part of the bottle for?

Interesting concept. I think I may give this a try. How do you siphon out the eggs without hurting them? Can you do this on day 7 so you don't have to stay up all night collecting larvae? I've also heard of some people using methylene blue to control fungus that sometimes develops with these guys. Have you given that any thought? Please do keep us posted!

Did you have to make a line on the bottle to make up for evaporative loss over the 8 days?

Originally Posted by BlakeT

Interesting concept. I think I may give this a try. How do you siphon out the eggs without hurting them? Can you do this on day 7 so you don't have to stay up all night collecting larvae? I've also heard of some people using methylene blue to control fungus that sometimes develops with these guys. Have you given that any thought? Please do keep us posted!

I haven't ever done this, but I know a lady in St Louis that does add methylene blue, but she's unsure if it's needed. She had fungus come up once so she's been doing it ever since.

You're more than welcome to top this off at any time. I'm going to top off every night. I'm sure that there's quite a bit of evaporation.

You just gonna draw a line and refill to it Glen?

More than likely. I didn't test it yesterday when I set it up so I'll have to check the salinity tonight. I did put a loose fitting lid on it last night to help keep in the heat and not splash the water everywhere.

I did notice last night that the clowns cleaned off the remaining eggs that I left. I guess I might have damaged them, or it just pissed them off to much.

Took their eggs and went home...

All the eggs in the tumbler looked viable last night. The water was starting to cloud up though, so there's a bacteria just going crazy in there.

Keep us posted! I may try this in the near future...

How are the eggs man?

They should be hatching today or tonight. I had a problem when I got home last night though. The air wasn't bubbling. I'm not sure what happened. I got it all working again, but I'm not sure how long it was off.

What did you have to do to get it working again? Did the power go out?

Just adjusted the air flow. I have a T in there and a shutoff on another line. I guess it magically adjusted itself. It's all good now.

Probably got dirt trapped in it. Does the air pump have a filter on it? Is it clean?