Please help an idiot

[wm_crash]

So today as I was dismantling my 20G forrest to move the pairs of Apisto sp Wilhelmi into 10G for individual pairs, I notice eggs on a piece of driftwood. I actually only had a reverse trio (plus a dozen juveniles) in that tank, so I could locate the mother. They were out of water for about 7 minutes. Are they still potentially viable?

I actually HAD to dismantle the tank as I needed to fish out juveniles which were just eating young fry . . . so I won't take the entire blame here

I placed the wood in a tank with the mother. She looks like she is trying to do something about the eggs. Either care for them, move them, or eat them. She might not feel at ease as the eggs are now at the top of the wood, not underneath like she had them in the previous tank. Is it a good idea to leave the female there, or there is serious chance she will just not recognize them and just eat them?

Any help with my questions is appreciated.

Cheers,
wm_crash, the friendly hooligan

 

[Gillie]

The eggs are probably not any good, but there is always a chance that some will survive and any bad eggs will get eaten. Also stress will cause her to eat them. Either way it will help fuel her next spawn.

 

[apistobob]

I would be very suprised if the mother cares for these eggs properly but you never know. I expect that she will eat the eggs, perhaps quite quickly.

If you really want to salvage as many fry as possible I would pull the eggs and hatch them in a seperate container.

 

[wm_crash]

Well it's been a few hours and the female shows no sign of doing anything with those eggs. So I just reunited her with the male in their own little 10G. I am sure somthing will happen in there before long.

Now for the eggs, they are turning just a little bit white at the tips. It's not fungus, it's their own color. I am pondering if this is normal . . . I see the same happening in this image:

(Note that image is not mine, just a good photo of apisto eggs.)

We'll see. I will keep updating this.

Cheers,
wm_crash, the friendly hooligan

 

[wm_crash]

So just a followup on the eggs that were out of water. About half of them were good and did start to wiggle. The god eggs and bad eggs were totally mixed, not separated in regions.

The problem was that in the same tank there were some 4 day old fry who started harassing any wiggler that dared move. So that was their end, but lots of stuff learned for myself.

cheers,
wm_crash, the friendly hooligan