My very aggressive african cichlid, which I am assuming is a Aulonacara Nyassae (Peacock Cichlid) judging by pictures and research, and the one that I had to move to my empty 10-gallon tank because of the aggressiveness, is carrying eggs in "her" mouth. For some reason I always thought it was a male because it has 2 eggs spots.

In the past week or so I noticed that it was digging under it's cave, all the way down to the glass bottom and it's appetite hasn't been good. About 3 days ago I noticed it had something in it's mouth - I thought it had a piece of gravel stuck in it's throat . Last night I really got concerned and looked in it's mouth when it got close to the glass and saw what looked like eggs .

I looked in a book I checked out from the library "The Encyclopedia of Aquarium Fish" and read that "The anal fin of the male carries several yellow egg spots. The significance of these egg spot markings becomes important during spawning. The female assumes the egg spots are more eggs to pick up to incubate in her mouth and by nuzzling at the spots she stimulates the male into releasing sperm which fertilizes the already collected eggs."

So now I'm confused . "It" has been in the 10-gallon by itself for 3 weeks now. Maybe it's a female with egg spots, unless males carry the eggs in their mouths also??? I haven't found the answer to that yet......

females have egg spots too.

Yup, egg spots are not a way to sex cichlids. If she has been alone then I'm sure the eggs are unfertalized and she'll just swallow them.