Fiji - Golden Damselfish eggs

The eggs are freshly laid
The eggs are developing
Starting to see their eyes
This is the dad who guard the eggs until they hatch

These eggs are belong to golden damselfish. It seems like their breeding season just finished.
In the past month of diving in Rainbow Reef in December - January, I saw these eggs once and a while in different dive sites.

Damselfish lay their eggs on substrate, commonly found on sea whip and then the male damsel would instinctively guard the fertilized eggs until they hatch. The fertilized eggs take anywhere from 3-10 days to hatch.

I am so excited to see the different developing stages of the eggs. It is also quite interesting to see the behaviours of the male damsel when you get close to the eggs, they did not get aggressive, they just move away from the eggs with some distance and keep an eye on you.
I feel like it is a strategy of using themselves as a target for distracting you to move away from the eggs. Pretty awesome behaviours!