Firemouths first unsuccessful spawn

[MSMenagerie]

I don't know how to make this a short story. I had a firemouth for a year, acquired two additional ones, kept them for another year and this past Saturday there was whole lot of "new" action in the usually peaceful tank. The largest two were set on killing the smallest. I removed him and the algae eater to another tank. Immediately the remaining two became quite colorful, most noticibly on the black colored areas, but of course the red on the throat. The two went about cleaning and picking at a pot in the tank. A few hours later there were maybe a hundred golden eggs on the inside of the pot and the male (obviously male now) was fanning the eggs diligently with the female sent to the other side of the tank (20gL, no other tankmates.) Two days later it appeared the eggs were turning white, but not fuzzy as with fungus. The male removed them one by one and now there are none (thur.) I am assuming the eggs were unfertilized or died somehow.
My questions are these:
how soon before I should let them try again?
what should I do in the meantime, conditioning wise?
if they lay again, should I treat the tank, thus the eggs, with an antifungal?
if so, which one is safest?

Thanks!

[MSMenagerie]

I was just curious, does no one really not have some experience with Firemouths or did I say something to offend someone into not replying? Not trying to bug anyone, just wondering. I can't find info in all my books and this is generally one of my more visited sites for info.

[Tightdog1]

Well congrats that they actually laid the eggs.
My brother has a pair in his 55g. they breed occasionally when the cons arn't breeding. i would jsut leave the fish together in the same tank until they spawn again. In the meantime make sure that your tank is very, very clean all the time. if they do lay eggs again and you do want to do the antifungal bath i would recommend to use MarOxy, made my Mardel

[MSMenagerie]

Thanks for the reply Tightdog and confirmation. I am scheduled for cleaning it in the morning since I didn't get to touch it while there was any remaining chance of fry in gravel pockets I couldn't see. Darn if I didn't start cleaning my daughter's molly tank and out pop 3 little 4 day old fry. Big eaters of the BBS too! Put'em to bed with quite stuffed bellies.

MSMenagerie