Electric Yellow Cichlid Infertile Eggs

Hi, i have 5 electric yellow cichlids. 2 Females and 3 males. Every time the female is holding eggs i wait 3-4 weeks and i strip them in a container. The problem is, every single time, the eggs arent even developped (they remain orange). Sometimes a few of them have a dark/blue spot or white but still, after that time they should at least be developped somehow. I have them for over 3 years i bought them since they were fry (1inch)

35 gallons, lots of rocks/caves, average temperature 75-80 Fahrenheit, green algae growing on rocks and a nice colony of trumpet snails 
water changes: almost never because no need, water cristal clear and smells pure
feeding: pillbugs from under rocks + other critters i find+ flakes when im lazy, rate: every other day or so
 
 
I have no idea what to do i love my fishies lol but i want them to breed
in the picture is one of my females. most fish are over arround 3 inch with the biggest 4inch

PLZ HELP

The only advice I could give is don't strip the females I never striped mine i just let them hatch out naturally and never had a single problem also try removing the two smallest or least dominate males that may help sorry I can't help more

Why not?

cos, even tho i will not strip them, after 2 weeks the eggs should have hatched and at least i would be able to see the tail and head, but i wait 4 weeks so therefore even tho i would wait more still nothing would happen. Besides, i let the female alone 1 time in a 5 gallon tank with a sponge filter and she just split the eggs after 6 weeks. she was very weak.

and, i dont see how removing a less dominant male would help...

Sorry to say but just because it "looks" clear and doesnt "smell" does not mean there is nothing wrong with the water, nitrates build up and need to be removed with water changes. You could also run into other problems such as ammonia spikes/nitrite spikes so i hope you have a testing kit

Diagvro said:

water changes: almost never because no need, water cristal clear and smells pure
 
 
 
 

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