Just got eggs from the netherlands and dont know how long to wait? 5-6-2012. tried today and nothing was there?

Look through the peat & see if you can find any eggs. I've not kept Fp. marmoratus on peat, but have hatched gardneri off of wet peat after leaving them there two weeks.

I realize that wet and "drier" peat effect the eggs very differently and that marmoratus & gardneri are not in the same sub-genus and so their eggs might fair differently from one another.

Fundulopanchax often do show a tendency towards producing eggs that will survive a time in peat and sometimes must be kept that way. However we've usually treated marmoratus (I still say marmoratum all the time too since I met them when they were considered Aphyosemion) the way we would treat plant spawners. That doesn't mean that is the only way to ship their eggs and indeed people ship Aphyosemion eggs in damp peat too.

However the Aphyosemion/ Scriptaphyosemion/ Epiplatys/ et al should be sent a few days after picking (to remove infertile individuals). Lee Harper on this forum has noticed that even in the incubation of annual killifish eggs, shipping seems to speed up the development process. There has been some complaining that if a annual's eggs that usually take two months to incubate were shipped at two months, that they may hatch en route and perish.

At any rate hatching results are less likely to be successful with older eggs.

If I were you I would "dry" the peat on white newspaper or paper towels and search (braille effectively) for eggs. If you find eggs, try again to hatch them. One put eggs in a medicine vial, breathe a little CO2 in there and popped them in a pocket while working around the fish. Do check & get swimmers. out of there quickly into similar water of a similar temperature if they hatch.

Another way to force hatched eggs is to put them in a full jar of water. Cover it with plastic wrap and tightly ribber band that shut. Gently drop it into a tank 16"/ 41cm or deeper. The pressure may do the trick.

Others put the eggs in a container, set that in the glove box of a car & go for a drive. Sometimes a few micro worms are added to supply CO2 and movement, though George Maier kidded that the embryos saw the food out there and struggled to get out of the eggs.

If you find no round eggs, ask your supplier why they sent you eggs dated 5-6-2012 and why didn't they send you eggs dated 7-6-2012?

Then I might ask them to send more eggs collected quite recently. You might send the box back & offer to pay for shipping.

The eggs of plant spawners need to be sent soon after they were laid. Once had a request to send a gentleman some pupfish eggs. That presented a problem in that they don't lay eggs until it gets pretty warm (80+F/ 28C+).

There was a real chance that the eggs would hatch en route & suffocate in a vial or pill bottle. The 4 day old eggs were placed in a fish bag half full of water, a little more postage was paid & the 25 eggs were sent on their 300 mile journey. Got a call that they had arrived & all had hatched. 24 survived!

Good luck in working out a resolution to your situation!

First, you want to realize that in Europe they flip the month and the day part of the date. So your eggs were collected on 5 June. I see you posted on 25 June (I'm sorry I didn't see your post then.). That would have been about three weeks. Though I don't have any personal experience with Fp. marm, I would expect around 4 or 5 weeks to hatch, depending on temp and some other factors such as plane rides. High temps and plane rides tend to decrease incubation time.

So, long story short. When you receive eggs, check them for eggs right away. Put peat out on some newspaper or wax paper and dig through it with a pencil under a good light. If you see eggs, put them away again, perhaps with some additional peat as more peat will help to keep moisture levels more stable. If you can, put them peat into a small container with a snap on lid (I use petri dishes) where you can keep an eye on the eggs. You might start checking every few days a week or so before the expected hatch time. In your case, 4 weeks past collection. So you would start checking at 3 weeks. When you see the gold iris around the eye, dump the peat in water.

If you don't see eggs when you initially receive the peat, let the seller know. The seller may replace them for free if you cover the postage.

Keith