i had my first beeta spawn on monday, my male elephant ear and female dragon so i was stoked.

tuesday all was good. woke up this morning and had alook, nest was all but gone and all eggs gone, eaten by the male i guess.

all i did was a very little water change on tuesday night, used a trukey baster to suck up the stuff on the bottom.

can i put this down to a rookie mistake by my male or is there something im missing?

Could be several reasons but first a few questions - did you remove the female? Where was the male when you discovered the eggs and nest gone? Are you sure they had not hatched?

If the eggs are not fertile the male will eat them

Occasionally you will get a male who is an Egg Eater ie will always eat the eggs.

Try again and see what happens

yip removed female, he was darting around the tank and then go back under the leaf. i dont think they hatched i cant see any fry and i have had a good look.

yeah thanks i'll try again and hope for the best

Best not to do any waterchange too.

it was only very small, maybe a liter or 2

yip removed female, he was darting around the tank and then go back under the leaf. i dont think they hatched i cant see any fry and i have had a good look.

yeah thanks i'll try again and hope for the best

I suspect they were/are under the leaf. Unless you have seen them before you will struggle to see newly hatched fry unless you have some sort of magnifier. If the male is still there leave he tank as It is for a few days and watch the males behavior. He will dart around scooping up the fry that detach and put them back. If you dont see any of that going on then there is probably nothing there.

It's the disturbance that can trigger the eating.

Not to sure with you fish but thought it was interesting to share one of my stories....

Had a male who I bred about 6 times he was a great fish and bred in a community tank 260L. About 8months after owning him he decided he didn't want to breed anymore and ate about 150 eggs and died shortly after it was a sad day and I have no idea why/what made him eat so many eggs in one go... Sometimes its just random