Macropodus breeding

The Macropodus male started building a nest yesterday. I didn't think too much off it, but tonight the female took and interest in it and they started mating. Initially they didn't seem to be very good at it - lots of couplings, but no eggs. Then a little while ago we noticed that the male was going crazy chasing platies away from the nest (initially he hadn't been bothered my other fish examining the nest), which suggested to me that there were eggs in there. As I looked at it more closely I saw an angel come and pluck something out of the nest, and then one of the platies. There wasn't much I could do other than place the nest (and the male) in the breeding box. So now he's in there, frantically trying to get out, frantically trying to chase the other fish away...and he's pretty much letting the remains of the nest disintegrate. Oh well. I'm still hoping for the best. Macropodus are supposed to be fairly easy to get to breed, so maybe I'll try again in the small tank, once the tank is cycling properly. Anyway, here are some pictures of the nest before I damaged it by putting it in the box.