Protecting eggs from parents
So I've been keeping Medaka for a while and generally have just had them spawn in a colony and it works out well, some of the fry survive and grow into the adults etc etc...
I recently picked up a somewhat rare and expensive pair from a breeder and I wanted to increase their numbers so I put them in a heated cycled tank with a bunch of floating plants and some intense 12+ hour lighting and within a week the female was pumping out some pretty impressive numbers of eggs. There's a couple of Neo's in there but they mostly stick to the bottom while the lights are on.
I cannot for the life of me save any of the eggs. I have children and a full time job so I admit I'm not super vigilant but usually I check in the morning and she has a full cluster, and I come home on my lunch break and I've found one egg on one of the spawning mops and that's it. In three days, I've got one egg.
I added more spawning mops and I removed some of the floating plants to check each one individually and I have come up with none.
So I have a few questions, when exactly does the male fertilize the female? Can I just remove the male (who may be the one eating the eggs who knows) in the morning and plop him back at lunchtime? If I remove her in the morning and pull the eggs off will they be fertile? I don't want to overly stress her so that might be a last resort. If I got a bunch of spawning mops would it help the eggs hide better? I currently have three in a cluster. Most of the surface was covered in floating plants but it didn't seem to have helped.
Any advice is appreciated.
It seems I've just gotten unlucky with an overly egg hungry pair.