That does look like something is in there. Now I don't want to go against anyone's experience, but I agree with you, I would not strip this fish.
1. You still have the female in qt. there is no rush to do anything at this point. Personal experience, patience is usually well worth it as this looks like a young fish and probably won't be the only time she's spawned, assuming she is holding. You get nothing negative out of letting her hold the eggs if she has them.
2. Again as this female looks fairly young, stripping a young female often leads to losing the instinct to hold a brood to term so if you do strip this female, you are likely going to be forced to do this each and every time she spawns down the road if you are trying to get fry off her.
3. I don't really see what advantage you are gaining stripping her myself. If she has eggs in there, they will be hatched within a couple weeks which helps you as well being in qt. The fry would already be in isolation as it is. You still will want to want the female out in qt anyways, so again I fail to understand the need to rush this through. If the female had an illness or something and you needed to treat her, that might make a little more sense to me. In the end time is going to tell you if she's holding or not anyways.
I'm not against stripping deeply or passionately but I really don't understand the stressing of doing it myself unless someone is a mass or commercial breeder. My point of view, stripping a female usually leads you into more work on top of what a keeper already does, but it also has it's applications too. I think you are doing the right thing so far.
1. You still have the female in qt. there is no rush to do anything at this point. Personal experience, patience is usually well worth it as this looks like a young fish and probably won't be the only time she's spawned, assuming she is holding. You get nothing negative out of letting her hold the eggs if she has them.
2. Again as this female looks fairly young, stripping a young female often leads to losing the instinct to hold a brood to term so if you do strip this female, you are likely going to be forced to do this each and every time she spawns down the road if you are trying to get fry off her.
3. I don't really see what advantage you are gaining stripping her myself. If she has eggs in there, they will be hatched within a couple weeks which helps you as well being in qt. The fry would already be in isolation as it is. You still will want to want the female out in qt anyways, so again I fail to understand the need to rush this through. If the female had an illness or something and you needed to treat her, that might make a little more sense to me. In the end time is going to tell you if she's holding or not anyways.
I'm not against stripping deeply or passionately but I really don't understand the stressing of doing it myself unless someone is a mass or commercial breeder. My point of view, stripping a female usually leads you into more work on top of what a keeper already does, but it also has it's applications too. I think you are doing the right thing so far.
