Sorry I haven't been on the site or keeping up with fish stuff in general lately. Pretty typical cichlid behavior before mine soaked - a pair formed and first thing they did was to beat up the dominant male together. They took over half of the 8' tank and kept the rest away. Spawning happened a few days later, and probably a dozen more times in the next few months after. I never pulled eggs. Sometimes they got eaten soon after and sometimes they just went bad. The male probably just didn't do his thing.