[toddnbecka]

IME breeding fish for feeders needs to be done in a separate tank. A breeding group kept with any predator will simply be eaten faster than they can reproduce. Some years ago I had a 40 gallon aquarium that was terribly overcrowded with hundreds of endler's livebearers. I placed a baby Carapo knife fish into the tank, thinking it would have a long-term food supply with all the breeding adults in the tank. After a couple weeks I moved the last endler's from the tank, there were 13 of various sizes remaining. Granted, a predatory fish is more efficient than a snake, but even trying to feed a baby water snake from a separate tank of livebearers quickly showed me the impracticality of the idea.