Red Empress brood size/holding time?

I usually strip them after a week or so and they are about half way to free swimming by then--mine average about 40 fry, in my notes the smallest batch was 23 and the biggest was 58

i have striped a female who was 4.5" who held 82 fry ya thats right 82! i actually have a picture of them all in my bucket ill try to dig it up this was about 3 years ago but usualy my broods from red empresses 3.5-4.5" are in the mid 30s-40s

82! Man that would be nuts, like clowns pouring out of a VW beetle.

ya it scared the #[email protected]# out of me i at 1st thought she must have picked up a bunch of gravel but then i noticed it was all fry lol

I stripped them at around 14days. The fries should be free swimmers by then.