Single male banggai cardinal found with eggs(?!) in mouth. Can anyone ID this?

[DanielBird]

I've kept a (aquacultured) banggai cardinalfish for over two years on his own. Today I found him with what I assumed was food stuck in his mouth. Having never kept him with any other banggais it never occurred to me that he could be holding eggs in his mouth.

I was trying to coax him into my acclimation box for closer inspection when he spat this out:

I feed mysis shrimp and pellets to the tank, so I really don't think this is food.

He is kept with a single pseudochromis fridmani and a single female clown.

If any one has ideas about what this could be, I'd be very interested.
Thanks!

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

That’s definitely cardinal eggs, the question is where did they come from if he is the only one in the tank?

My only guess could be that this is a female Cardinal and in the absence of a male, laid unfertilized eggs and then assumed the role of caring for them due to instinct. Very odd, but fish are constantly surprising us.

I would personally make a little egg tumbler and see what happens with them, more than likely they will just decay though.

 

[litsoh]

Yep, unfertilized cardinal eggs. Fertilized ones are orange in color. It's odd that the female would attempt to mouth brood them though, I haven't seen that before

 

[DanielBird]

Thanks, that makes sense. Yeah, I was very confused to see them in their mouth!

 

[DaJMasta]

My only guess could be that this is a female Cardinal and in the absence of a male, laid unfertilized eggs and then assumed the role of caring for them due to instinct. Very odd, but fish are constantly surprising us.

This has been documented - I don't have a source to offer but I know I've seen it as a described behavior. Also in my experience, once the eggs start looking cloudy, even if they were fertilized, they won't make it.

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

This has been documented - I don't have a source to offer but I know I've seen it as a described behavior. Also in my experience, once the eggs start looking cloudy, even if they were fertilized, they won't make it.

I’ve seen it in mouth brooding cichlids as well, albeit very rare. The instinct to raise and protect the eggs is more powerful than the natural behaviours of the fish a lot of the time

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks, that makes sense. Yeah, I was very confused to see them in their mouth!

Perhaps she was trying to eat them? There was a case where a public aquarium announced that their flashlight fish had spawned and they "documented them as mouthbrooders" based on finding eggs in the mouth of one of the fish. turns out, flashlight fish are NOT mouthbrooders, and that the eggs were just being eaten.