Banggai Cardinal not letting go of babies/eggs

[Kelly3s]

I have a pair of Banggai Cardinals that have babies. The dad released 3 of them last Friday. They have been moved to the "nursery" and are doing great.
But the dad clearly still has either more hatched babies and/or eggs in his mouth and he won't release them. Anyone know if it is normal for it to take this long after some babies have been released for dad to still be hanging on to some? And/or is possible he is holding on to infertile eggs?

 

[Jason_MrFrags]

you should be able to see the babies once they are big enough. You can also try to catch him and release if hatched.

 

[sabeypets]

You should be able to catch him in a net, usually this is enough to make him spit the rest out (sometimes chasing him with a net makes him spit them out). If not hold him face down out of the water, in the net, with his mouth just barley in the water for a few seconds.

 

[Kelly3s]

There is no way I can catch him. We have a lot of rock work and when he has babies he hides under one particular bridge. I am not really concerned about them. I figure he will release them at some point when they get too big. I just didn't know if this is normal for there to have been three released 4 days ago and still holding on to more. I guess my only concern is the longer he waits the longer he goes without eating.