First time I've seen this in 35yrs!

[markw]

Went down to the fishroom this morning to do routine feeding and maintenance. Notice a dead female Xenotilapia sima in the bottom of one of the tanks. She was a large female-over 5" and had a mouthfull of fry. Anytime I've ever tried to strip from a dead female, the fry are either all dead, fungused or unfertilized eggs. I had to really force her mouth open(she obviously had been dead for several hours) and out squirt over 70 fry! Every one of them is still alive and eating like pigs. She had obviously been beaten up pretty bad by the male, which is an unfortunate characteristic of these guys, but somehow all those fry survived, without any circulation by the mother.
Lesson is next time check to see if anything is still alive!

[Brent Shaver]

Sorry about the loss of your female, but have to agree it doesnt hurt to check.  70 fry, wow, here I was excited I found 4 lol.  Makes me wonder how many became bait before I noticed..

Keeping in mind I never intended to breed my cichlid tank...

[sas]

Very interesting, I would have thought the fry would have all died.
Amazing that she held onto them even after being beaten so badly.
I wonder if they would have made their way out of her mouth eventually on their own.

Wow 70 fry, nice big brood, congrats and good eye to save them!

Too bad about your female she sounded like a wonderful specimen.

[charlie]

Sorry to hear of the loss.
On the good news side,congrats on the fry,this hobby teaches us new things constantly.

[fischkopp]

Little phoenix fish! Our little finned friends can surprise us every day!

[markw]

I wonder if they would have made their way out of her mouth eventually on their own.

Her jaw was closed solid with rigamortis(not sure how to spell that one!) There was no way that the fry could have swum out. It is an amazing side of nature though...like I said I've never seen it before!

[ciaus]

Rigimortis does pass, but I doubt it would have done so in time for the fry to have worked themselves free...

[astare]

you lost one fish but gained 70! i hope they make it. i would wish you luck with them but it would appear that they make their own.

[RoxyDog]

Sad to hear the mom had to go, but that's awesome about the babies!

[Nerine]

that's great that the babies were all alive!!

[Troy]

very cool news