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i have a young pair of jack dempsey's and they've been together for 2 months and already produced fry. but the female has not grown since she had the babies but the male has grown almost twice his original size. i was told just as long as the female is producing fry she will not grow. so how much will it affect them if separated them until she is an adult?

Exactly how large is she right now? When fish produce fry, they eat less and use up more of their nutrients, vitamins, etc so they do get stunted.

If shes large enough, you wont need to separate her. Also, the may just be going through his growth spurt.

she's only 2 inches but she eat all the time.

I have heard that females spawning at small sizes will either stunt or slow their growth. I think if anything it will slow their growth as they will eat less but I don't think they'll get stunted. That's just my theory though.

The only experience I can offer is that I've taken both of my festae out of the tank and measured them after both of their (unsuccessful) spawning attempts and both male and female grew 0.5" in that month. So, apparently my female festae's growth hasn't been affected by their spawning attempts. I had considered separating them if she was growing more slowly, but my only fear was how they would react once they would be re-introduced as adults. Personally, I'd leave them together just to make sure not to disturb their pair bond, but that's just me.

Jason