Chocolate Cichlid eggs. How the hell?

[viboy]

Okay. Somehow my chocolate cichlid has mated and produced a bunch of eggs. The only thing is I only have one chocolate cichlid! The only mate that I would think possible is my severum as it is close to the same size and age and is the only other fish that the chocolate will allow to come close.

My question is what do I do now?? I would kind of like to see babies and assume that I will have to separate them into another tank. Do I need to move the parents as well as the babies or just the babies? Will the parents become more aggressive once the babies are born? How big does the maternity tank need to be? Can I get away with a 10 or 20 gallon and just house the babies?

This is all happening in my 125 with a 45 gallon sump.

Current inhabitants are:

Chocolate Cichlid
Severum
Buffalo Head
Ghost Knife
2 Congo Tetras
2 Silver Tetras
3 Giant Danios
1 Big *** pleco

 

[fishorama]

Cichlid females will sometimes lay (infertile) eggs without a male. Those eggs in your pic look white, like infertile eggs. Fertile eggs are usually amber colored as far as I've seen.

 

[viboy]

That sucks. Most are white and some are grey. Infertile too?

 

[fishorama]

Maybe fungused

 

[Narwhal72]

Yep. It's not unusual for female cichlids to lay eggs without a mate. The white ones are infertile and the still clear ones are also infertile but have not died yet. It takes about 24-48 hours for the infertile eggs to actually die and turn white sometimes. Chances are they will all be eaten and gone by morning tomorrow.

 

[rufioman]

My angel does this on my giant broadleaf anubias and swords. The other fish don't understand what is going on, but my bottom feeders love to try and eat those eggs.