Breeding Problem

[wirralbull]

after conditioning my new ct male and a purple female i introduced them last night. after an hour or so they started mating. the only promlem was after collecting the falling eggs my male didnt return to his nest. just back to her to continue mating. anyone else had this problem. what can i do to stop this happening again? what was wrong?

 

[Xander]

Had he eaten prior to mating? Also, they may not of been fertilized and so he just collected them to eat.. or he was holding them in his mouth while he went to finish with the female. Did he place any of the eggs into the nest?

 

[wirralbull]

no none in the nest and yes they had just eaten which i think triggerd the mating

 

[sausagewinkle]

Some males are egg eaters and wont breed.
All you can do is try again....

 

[The_Betta_Lady]

Did you feed them while they was in the spawn tank together? This is a bad idea as the male can be confused into thinking eggs are food. Once the pair are placed together to spawn they should not be fed until they are removed. So the female directly after spawning and the male once the fry are free swimming, this prevents eggs and fry getting eaten.

As Sausagewinkle said, some males are just egg eaters and cannot ever be stopped, and some females are like this too. Try again making the last feeding before they go in together and then see what happens, if he eats them again then he is not a good breeding fish.

Good luck