Egg bound, prolapsed ovipositor, or what

[FishGrrl]

So, I noticed a male bangaii cardinal holding eggs today. YAY. Of course, the mood was immediately crushed when I notice something hanging out of the females body. At first I thought it was poop, but upon closer inspection, it looked like a mass of eggs covered in red.

I have no idea what it is, but I'm guessing she's egg bound, or has a prolapsed ovipositor, or something along those lines. I took a picture, its not great (she wouldn't sit still) but hopefully someone can tell what it is:



Slightly closer view:


any ideas on what exactly this is, and what, if anything, I can do?

[Luis A M]

Definitely an egg mass.
As it looks bloody and is not expulsed,it could be an ovarian prolapse.
Hope not,keep us updated

[FishGrrl]

Well the mass has either fallen away or been reabsorbed over the last couple of days. I am guessing reabsorbed (or retracted, not sure which) because it got progressively smaller since yesterday morning.

However, she's not back to eating yet. Still crossing my fingers though because she seems otherwise very active. The male unfortunately ate whatever eggs he was holding too. I don't know if its related to what happened or not.

[FMarini]

Fishgrrl-
actually what you described is not uncommon. females often times have additional eggs (since the male can only hold so many). The additional eggs will often hang from the chrionic thread until they fall off.
You might find this thread interesting.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=250674

Particularly read the reponse from Alex vagelli. If you don't know who alex is he is the scientist credited w/ doing the census of banggai populations in the wild as well as writing the science books on apogons and banggais
he is the source