I cannot explain the disappearance of the male. Sometimes a female-looking fish is a male, but I cannot say this about your two. The male, however, might have been present most of the time in its cave. A male that found a good cave and is ready for courtship and spawning is rarely to be seen outside again. I always recommend to put only one cave in a tank for one pair only, and place this with the open front towards the front glass, in order to be easily inspected by the light of a torch.
The “eggs” are Paro-eggs since there are no other fish present.
We had several observations that females cared for the clutch in the cave after the male disappeared or died. Linke saw this with linkei, I with paludicola.
But always a male was present before.
But we have had very few observations, too, that a female produced eggs withou any male present. There may be several different reasons for this. In any case, why are the eggs not in their cave but distributed outside? Either you did it by your search for the male, or (more likely) a female did it by not caring perfectly for the clutch because disturbed by anything, perhaps the other female. A trio is not always the best setup. After forming a pair, the second female should be taken out. In nature everything is different. Nobody cares about a lost clutch.
In this case, we shall see if the eggs develop. If there are snails in the tank, there is no future for them. Sometimes, the female(s) eat them, too. Without parental care there is only little hope for them. If they do not disappear, we shall see if they are fertilized or not. If they are not, they will die by funghi within a few days.
Normally, destruction of eggs by funghi happens rather fastly. If they remain like this for several days, it is very likely that the male disappeared very late indeed. You must observe if they change. The normal development of Paro-eggs leads to a very fast change of their form; they become longish, and a tail is to be seen after four or five days. If they remain as round as they are now for several days, they are not fertilized. Then, the male may have disappeared even earlier.
Rafael, you may find this not very amusing, I understand. But you wrote an interesting chapter of the observations of unusual behaviour. It might be nice if you could reveal the male’s fate. Are you sure that it’s corpse is not to be found behind the tank?