Within the bottom spawning Aphyosemion, resting eggs are easily produced if one
does not wash out the eggs from the fine bottom mud. However, if eggs are washed
out and kept in shallow water with free entrance of air, I never saw a resting egg.
Also I had little doubt that resting eggs might occur in dry sample of peat.
However, I had to revise my ideas on that point: several pairs of Aphyosemion filamentosum
were spawning in a 15 liter tank until 23 Nov. 58. Bottom peat was then taken out,
fine particles washed out and the loose and coarse peat with lots of eggs was stored
in a 200 ccm glass.
05 May 58: egg and peat had first watering: peat washed at once in order to
find out the state of eggs. 7 eggs were ripe (some hatched during washing and sorting),
1 egg had nearly ripe embryo, 3 eggs had small embryo with blood and little pigmentation.
4 eggs had very small transparent embryo with no blood and no pigmentation. The eggs
that were not fully developed did develop on shallow water during the following 3 weeks.
Indeed they were not dead. The storing peat was not at all very dry, that is to say a
"little more moist than smoking tobacco". No doubt these few eggs (15 totally) were
the sad remainders of possibly hundreds of hundreds of sound eggs which did develop
during Dec. 58 but had to languish because the watering came too late. The few fry
which hatched were rather thin, but liveable.