Sparkling Gourami Breeding Help

So my sparkler pair was spawning for the second time tonight (first batch was eaten by the ember tetras - I thought they weren't a risk but those fry were tiny!) and all seemed well at first... I left the room and when I came back the timer had shut their light off, so I turned it back on and weird stuff was happening. They are done spawning, but the male isn't guarding the nest at all, the female keeps popping in there and eating eggs, and then chasing him around flaring her fins at him. He wants none of it, he is running and hiding and just being super weird and timid, and has no interest whatsoever in going near the nest area. There's no nipping going on, or even any physical contact - when he guards the nest he nips her tail, and when she's mad at him she nips his, but she's just following him around displaying. It seems like maybe she had more eggs and the light going off interrupted them, and she's trying to get him to finish, and for some reason he just doesn't want to. Is this possible? I was trying to keep her out of the nest but I can't do that all night, and he's not tending to it anyway so I figured the worst that'll happen is she eats them and they spawn again in a few days. Anyone with sparkler experience have any thought on this?

 

I can give you a take on a frustrated female Betts that might be similar to what you are getting. She chased him around until they met under the best where he kept dancing to impress her and she started giving him little nips to get him to focus on breeding, she knew what she was trying to do, he was being a dofus. She may be frustrated and the eggs are an easy snack if dad isn't guarding them.

 

She was! They finished spawning after I posted, nest was full and all was well... but by the time I woke up she had eaten them all again. I think he may be guarding another nest now but I can't see it. Do you think I'll have to remove her to get fry or maybe they'll get the hang of things eventually?

 

You may have to remove her, but he should be protecting them from her though. You may have to stick her in a breeder net until they get to free swimming?

 

Ugh. I do have a net in there already with a few shrimp in it, but I'd have to move that to make space for her. I suppose I'm not in a rush so I'll let them work it out for awhile - he's much smaller than her so I'm hoping as he grows he'll learn better how to defend the nest. He gets overzealous about patrolling the area and forgets to keep checking the nest, poor thing. He did really well when he had actual fry, until he got so distracted chasing the embers away from them that they started sneaking up from behind and eating the babies.