I seperated my female after about 2 weeks of holding. she never spit them out so i stripped her at day 26 of holding. she shrank sooooo mcuh. so be careful and watch out for your female. once she releases/you strip her youll need to keep her seperate or else the male will go right back to the mating shaking trying to get her to do it again lol. that female is literally half the size of the male now(she was about 3/4 his size originally). there's other girls in the tank but he's only after that one lol so be cautious & congrats! they had 13 fry on their first attempt.