I don't know how those are down south, but up here mine splits about every 3 to 4 months. I still have two in my tank. My nieghbor has three of them in his tank from my splits, and I have had it for about a year and a half.
I used to feed it three times a week, now days I feed it less then once a week to tone down the self reproduction.
Then again if it all it took for me to reproduce was food, I would have a whole lotta kids.....