Jewel Cichlid

Question
I have a 55 gallon new (4 weeks old) tank. it has mostly Gouramis in it, though while at the pet store, the jewel cichlid caught my eye, and after talking to the pet store guy, he said that they would do well in my tank. I bought 2. After a few days in there, they have done very well, they leave the other fish alone, and the other fish don't bother them either. In fact, they are doing so well that I have eggs! ah! what do I do?! I don't even have the "flat rock" that they need to lay eggs on, it's just on the bottom, on the regular rocks. what do I need to do to protect the fry, and the parents from the other fish, and each other? I don't have an extra tank, should I get one? and if these fry don't survive, as I am leaving for a week in a few days, is this a one time thing, or can I look forward to having more eggs? I know I should have done more research on these guys, but they were so pretty, and I wasn't expecting eggs! what's the chance that I get a male and female out of the 20 jewels that were in that tank! help please! Thank you so much!

Answer
Its always fun when fish spawn in your tank and its not expected however it can also be a mess.  Jewel Cichlids are very aggressive parents and will not tolerate any other fish in the area of the fry!  Both parents will defend the fry for several weeks after they hatch and its not uncommon to see the Jewel Cichlids holding all of the other fish up in a small corner of the tank while defending the fry. I'm suprised that you have not already had problems with the Gouramis and the Jewels not getting along since most Jewels are much more aggressive then most Gouramis.  At this point all you can do is wait and see how the parents are with the other fish, I can tell you that the Gourmais have no chance at getting to the fry so you have really no need to worry about them getting eaten by the other fish in the tank.  If the parents get to aggressive you might need to look into getting another tank to put the fry into, once the fry are out of the tank the parents will calm down.  Good luck.