Male banggai cardinal ate the eggs instead of keeping them in his mouth.

Avelino Alicea · May 3, 2018

So, before I left for work, my pair of banggai cardinals were doing the mating dance.for the second day. Today though, it appeared as they were just about ready to do the fertilizing of eggs and the transfer. Unfortunately I had to go to work so I missed the moment.

I came home from work early and found the male cardinal had a huge belly and the female was back to being slim. It appears he ate the eggs instead and I don't know if there's anything I can do. The poor female is chasing him around I guess trying to get him to do something with the eggs rather than eat them?

Anyone has any input or suggestions

Tahoe61 · May 3, 2018

Not uncommon, they usually figure it out eventually.

Avelino Alicea · May 4, 2018

Tahoe61 said:
Not uncommon, they usually figure it out eventually.

Thanks ! After doing some research I grabbed the male and managed to get him to spit a few of the eggs (8). I don't know if they will continue to develop on their own, but I have them in a small tank.

Anyway I put the male back on the main tank with his female partner and after a few minutes his belly swelled up again, which tells me he still has a bunch of eggs he swallowed. The female was courting him and it looked almost as if she wanted him to get take care of the eggs properly instead of eating them.

We'll see. What happens in the morning when I check on everyone