goldenballer;4676205; said:
1. They can grow out next to indefinitely, given the space. I've had several generations grow side by side with little more than fin nipping. (Read, they'll need to be crowded to spread aggression.)
2. Depending on the fish doing the eating... 1 month nets 1/4-3/4" fry. They grow quite a bit faster for me once they can pilfer whole pellets. You'll need a TON of food for powerfeeding Dovii's though. These will be a treat.
3. Certainly. If they do, buy a lotto ticket. Having seen Dovii's feed in person, they're certainly angry enough to try and swallow a bowl of broken glass just because it had the balls to get in the tank with them. Keep an eye on them, and feed them fish that are smaller than their mouths open (when the feeders' dorsals are up) and you should be just fine. Odds are they'll be swallowed before they get a chance anyhow.
4. Odds are the parents will do your job for you. They'll do fine on leftovers. Even better on flake/crushed wax worm/crushed cricket/crushed pellet/algea wafers/etc. Just be cautious in moving the fry. Wait until they're free swimming and eating. (In my experience, they do infinitely better.) This will take 1-2 weeks after hatching. The fry will let you know when it's time to eat. They'll start attacking anything tiny that moves. For example, my 1/4" fry will eat a damaged rosy red feeder from the inside out. (Not optimal, or recommended, but my Dempseys are scared of the 1" convict female...
)5. Live plants are always great, but they can be a pita during maintenance or netting fry. Floating plants are better. If you can grow duckweed or the giant variant, go for that. Just be aware it's near impossible to kill once established. Anacharis has done great for me. (Elodea xxx....) It grows in a 5+wpg tank, a 3+wpg tank, and a .5 wpg tank. (all low tech, slower per tank. And yes, I've got 80 watts sitting on a 10.
) More often than not, your fish will tear at them just because they can rather than eating them. The anacharis in my con tank only gets eaten if they're starved for 2-3 days. (Then, some of the cons dissapear... 
) Realize my cons will eat veggies... Red leaf lettuce, brussell sprouts, zuchinni, etc. They're odd like that.6. If you're good enough to breed RCS or CRS, breed those. They're one of the few hobby species that make money if you're good at what you're doing. They grow quickly, don't eat their young, and don't require multiple tanks (To do feeder cons in quantity, you'd need a seperate tank for each 1-2 week gap in fry - they will eat/kill their siblings given the chance). They will however never be more than a 10x per bite snack for a 18" Dovii. A tasty bite, though.
What they will do, however, is pay for excellent foods, and small equipment upgrades. At ~$1+ per shrimp once you're up and going at higher grades, you can actually break even and then some.
Cliffs - If you can get started cheap (Friend locally with shrimp colony) and know what you're doing, shrimp. Sell your high grade, feed your low grade.
Hope it helps. ^_^
