hours after giving birth to fry. A useful thing in the wild - they release a pheromone to alert the males to her condition (and as I have said so often, as if they need any more motivation). This may be useful in the stream but not in the aquarium.
If you are really concerned for her and you have another aquarium or a gallon bowl or wide-mouthed pickle jar, put the males in there and give her a break. ;)
If you have a glass tank top, glass containers sitting on that will be close to the temperature of the tank itself.
In the wild and in the labratory, wild type females seem to consent to mating with about three males in any given cycle, a strategy which allows for some genetic diversity in her offspring. Females also shun diseased males. In the stream she can swim away from a pesky male or even attack them. (There evidently have been cases of severed gonopodiums, so it is in the male's interest to court her and not just try and sneak-mate.) Some pesky small males are still sneaker spawners though. Maybe a variety of spawning methods - courting by the more "desirable males and sneaking by the swift little beggers - has a survival value too.
Females don't have the same options in ten gallons of water. :( Most of them will be annoyed and tired, but will endure anyway.
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