Unusual African cichlid issue

[Graham]

Hi all, I'm posting because I have come into the issue where, although I enjoy having my cichlids breed, I want them to hold their fry for as long as possible, and not starve themselves as well. I used to breed red zebra and I have a couple fish about an inch, inch and a half long, and I already have a female holding! The big issues I am concerned with, are that a) Will this fish be able to hold fry in it's mouth for the entire growth period? b) It's getting awfully skinny, due to it's size. Will it die trying to raise its fry? and c) Are fish that small strippable? the smallest I've ever stripped was about 2.5-3 inches long.

[sanny]

Hey Graham! That's totally fine to strip a female that size. Usually people strip the female as soon as the egg sacks go away on the fry. Give her a month or two and she'll come back to normal.

[robt18]

It is very rare for them to starve themselves to the point of death while raising fry. And you can strip them at any size, and if you're willing to tumble the eggs you can strip them very early on as well...

The bigger issue here is that she's so young and small here, she should be eating more and using her energy to grow to adult size before breeding. Many people will just strip the eggs as soon as they notice them at this size to make sure she doesn't lose any weight and discourage breeding behaviour.

[limmer]

They usually don't starve themselves.
I have seen them take a little food in with the fry in their mouth.  Not sure if it is for them or fry.
I usually wait 2 or 3 weeks.  They are partially developed by then.
If I take them out too early then I try to tumble them in an egg tumbler.
Sometimes I will strip them so they don't get too run down or beat up.

[Graham]

Just an update on this issue, I decided to leave the female in the tank because I figured that her being so small, it would be more harmful than good. Turns out that she did indeed end up holding the babies for three weeks, and ended up spitting them afterwards. She is now eating and fattening up! Thanks for all the advice guys!

[sas]

Good stuff. Thanks for letting us know how it turned out, a lot
of people never come back on here and post the results.
Any idea roughly how many she had?