Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid Problem

[jacko9901]

hi

on wednesday i purchased a pair of cockatoo cichlids for my 20 gallon tank. the female settled in far better than the male and was fully coloured up in hours. however the male although had colour on his fins had far paler markings on hos body than from the female.
today then i was going to do my weekly water change i sadly noticed the death of the male cichlid but now there is a problem. when checking the cave in which they inhabited as their hide away to check for the female i came across about 30+ orange/slightly pink eggs on the underside of the rock.

this gives more complication on how the male died. IMO it did not settle in properly and sadly died but if it was not settled it then why would it attempt to breed?

the other problem is in the female and what should i do with her? she is guarding her eggs but as being on her own may lead her to die from exhaustion or starvation.

what if anything could you recommend for me to?

many thanks

jack

 

[minxfishy]

Are there other fish in the tank that would stress the female unnecessarily?

If left alone and the eggs are fertile, she should be able to raise them herself, as you will be feeding them, not her, they will eat their egg sacs for the first day or so.

Do you know your water parameters? Just asking in case thats what caused the male to die.

 

[mattbond]

males don't assist in caring for the eggs anyway, its all the female, just leave her to it, they are generally very good parents, if your tank is mature, there should be enough infusioria for them to eat at first, but after it might be worth feeding them maybe liquifry, newly hatched brine shrimp or frozen rotifers/cyclops, it may be the male died because the female defends the eggs from him, because males always want to spawn, and females activly drive them from the nest sight

if you want to carry on keeping them, then get 2+females, so the male goes to the other female when the 1st one is caring for the fry, as they would in the wild