Anyone ever have a female that just won't hold her eggs, or at least won't hold all of them?

We got a WC pair of Cynotilapia sp. Mbamba Nkhata Bay several months ago. Really great fish, and I don't like to go with "pairs", but with these two it has worked out okay aggression wise.

They spawn, but not as often as most of our fish, and when they do, she will start out with a huge mouth full, only to reduce the size of the clutch over time. By the time the fry are born, there will usually be 4-6 viable fry with a few white eggs still in the mom's mouth. Sometimes, she will just be holding unfertilized eggs and no fry???

This would be a great species to introduce more to the hobby around here, but at 4-6 fry a time, I won't be the one to do it!

Anyone experience anything like this with mature moms?

Kim

Do I see an egg tumbler in your future? fishy

No egg tumbler for me, I'll probably just hang on to an extra female and hope for the best...

And you all remember how long it took me to determine whether this one was a female or not! This should be fun...

I've experienced this with young inexperienced females before, but it's as if this one intentionally gets rid of the eggs. The male has to be fertile, or none would be fertilized. I've never actually seen them spawn, so perhaps she's picking too many up before he gets a chance to fertilize them?

She's a big girl, you'd just expect her to have more fry!

Kim