Can female hurt herself holding too long?

[scifisarah]

I have four Labidochromis chisumulae, I believe one female and three males. I have been trying to catch the female from my 75 gallon to save her fry every time I see she is about done holding. I finally got her today, spawn date of April 13 so about 23 days holding. The 7 fry in her are already bigger than the saulosi fry from a April 1 spawn. I could barely get them out of her mouth they were so big. I had to handle her for quite a while to get them all out and worry about stressing her too much from that but I see she is eating and acting fine now that she is back in the tank. If I don't manage to catch her in the future, can a fish become unhealthy from holding too long? Or will she be smart enough and either spit them out, or eat the babies? I've never had such a stubborn/good mother before. It is pretty tricky catching her from the tank since I have lots of rocks stacked up and she usually just hides if she sees me even walking towards the tank.

[Dan K]

I think they will spit before starving. If you only got 7 maybe she has been releasing a few here and there for a while. When I want to be sure to save all the fry I strip at about 16 days.

[Bremmon]

I have had females hold for up to 31 days... I wouldn't worry to much about it.  I rarely if ever strip my females. I'm curious what is you tanks water temp?

[scifisarah]

I keep the temp at 78, is that alright? The parent fish are ones that I purchased last year at a GVAC auction. I will just let nature take its course next time then, and not worry about her. I have three fry from a few months ago, and these seven so hopefully some of them will be females.

[Bremmon]

at 78, shes probably going to hold at least 24-25 days... if not more... I always bump my holding tanks up to 80-81... they usually end up holding 21-23 days max.

[auratus]

Yes fish can hold to long and die