Hi Y'all. I'm treading carefully at the moment as my filter is still adjusting to my new fish, but I want to get a better sense of how much to feed once my set-up is stable. Everyone says 'whatever they can eat in a few minutes' but as my fish vary in size and speed I want a more specific idea of what they need each.

I have a black moor = 2", a ranchu = 2 1/4", and the new ranchu = 3"
At the moment I am feeding Tetra Fin Gold Japan (sinking pellets of about 2/3mm length) and peas - as they seem to be a little constipated. I'm trying 2-3 small meals a day alternating the pellets and peas.
I get the feeling the big ranchu is starving as he has this desperate pulling up the plants thing going on and thrashes round the tank like a Great White. Obviously the little moor will need less than him, but how much each?
Ideas please........

yo, pixiefish

Tetrafin Gold Japan is those sinking sticks, am I right? Looks like good stuff.

The sizes of your fish is not really a problem as they're pretty closely matching. For me, how much & how I feed my fish is based largely on observation. Firstly I put a "good" amount of pellets (soaked of course) in, then observe how long does it take for them to finish the food, and roughly how much each fish eats. Bigger fish usually eats quicker. If they eat equally, good. Then u can try increasing the amount of food. The 5-minute guide is good, but lately I tend to stretch that a bit . After that it's just a matter of habit and occasional observation, as your fish grows u need to feed more too.

hope that helps

Sorry I didn't reply to this sooner but thank you, anyways.
I wanted to ask you about my params V food; I'm still getting the odd trace of Amm and Nit occasionally and so was talking to an online Aq Shop the other day about buying some live bacteria to help expand the colony. The guy said my problem was overfeeding and that I should be only giving "2 a day".
"2 pinches?" I ask, "No, 2 pellets" he says. Can you believe it?

It's 3 weeks since adding the first 2 fish to my fishless cycled tank and 2 weeks since the 3rd so do you think some live bacteria would help? Once the tank is established it should be able to handle more than 2 pellets each a day, right?

It should be able to handle much more than 2 pellets a day

Hmmm not an expert in cycle of the tank, but some live bacteria would definitely help. My opinion if u got only odd traces of ammonia & nitrite and it disappear quickly, I wouldn't worry too much. Maybe u can feed more & more gradually, let ur cycle keep up with the increased bio load