Advice on catching mouth breeders- without spitting out the eggs

[efdavis]

Good afternoon,

My PJ Cardinalfish have been spawning like crazy and I have lost every batch of eggs do to inexperience, ignorance and hungry tank mates. The last two times I have tried to catch papa a couple of days before he is due to release the eggs to hatch and both times he has spit them out. The first time I placed the eggs in a separate aquarium but they didn't hatch. This time I placed them in a breeder in the main aquarium. I was trying to put the male in the breeder with eggs in mouth but he spit so I just put the eggs in and let him go. I first noticed that he was holding the eggs last Sunday which means that he was due to let them go this Sunday or Monday. My questions are...

1. Do the eggs have a chance to hatch in the breeder even though they were released a couple of days early?

2. Does anyone have experience catching mouth breeders without them getting so freaked that they jettison their eggs?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

[billsreef]

It's best to place the pair in a seperate breeding tank for spawning, then remove the female once you know the male is carrying. This way you don't have to transfer the male until after the babies have hatched and are ready to be on their own ;) If you have eggs that have been spit out, set up an egg tumbler. Basically a small jar of tank water with sufficient aeration to keep the eggs in motion.