Canary's are dropping eggs

[235g tank]

Hello everyone. The brichardi Canary cheek juveniles that I bought back in February are know beginning to drop eggs. 3 fish this week dropped eggs for the first time. I have 16 females and 4 males for a total of 20 young adults. 2 males are inactive and swim with the group. 1 male dominates the left side of the aquarium and 1 male dominates the right side. both dominant males seem to be getting an equal amount of attention. Im not sure if the males are mature enough to fertilize the eggs. I do think this is gonna end up being a terrific breeding group and they get along very well. I don't think it will be much longer!!!

[235g tank]

I ended up with a good M:F ratio. No casualties either

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Great mate. How old are the males? They tend to reach sexual maturity later than females, but will go through the motions as often as they can, lol
I had a group of sp. red chipimbi whose females started spawning at 6-7 months age, but I didn't get a fertile spawn until about 16 months. It was kinda frustrating actually. If I could have bought a mature male somewhere I sure would have.
In your case with the risk of upsetting the balance I would leave them run their course. Canary cheek groups are renowned for their implosions so if yours are behaving I wouldn't do anything to disrupt that...

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Nice. I agree. The males are chemically driven but not typically ready physiologically as soon as the females.

[235g tank]

I received them in early February. They where just 1.5 inches. So 8 months + whatever time it took them to get to 1.5in would be their age. I don't think the males are mature yet... because every female, spit the eggs within 24 hours. But definitely alot of breeding dancing going on.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Yep. That sounds about right for young tropheus activity. Give it another 4-6 months and you should have fry.

[235g tank]

Thank you very much guys. Also. In celebration of me recently becoming a 3 star junior member of TAM i am releasing a never before seen bonus video of my fish at feeding!! ENJOY!!

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Lookin great 3*Jnr lol

[235g tank]

Egg thief!!

One of the canarys yesterday was dropping eggs and another tropheus fish swooped in and stole the freshly dropped egg. She held the stolen egg for about half a day before disposing of it. should i be concerned? Im not sure what to make of this odd ball behavior. Are my fish lacking protein in thier diet perhaps??

[mikevxr]

I’ve seen mine spit out the odd egg if they have too many in their mouth - usually when it’s over 18/21 eggs.

Alternatively if eggs are not fertile then they may spit them out or eat them.