The daily ration for one of the smallest livebearers
A least killifish needs very little food each day — a tiny pinch of fine food, offered once or twice, that the group clears within a couple of minutes. The least killifish is a diminutive livebearer in which even the larger females are small enough to make ordinary pellets useless, so everything offered must be powdered, crushed, or naturally microscopic. Think in terms of dusting the surface rather than scattering a meal. If food is still drifting uneaten after a few minutes, the pinch was too big, and the next day's should shrink.
The planted tank is half the menu
Least killifish graze between their formal meals, and that grazing changes how much you need to add. In a mature planted tank, a least killifish picks steadily at biofilm, algae edges, and the tiny organisms living among fine-leaved plants and moss. That background foraging is genuine nutrition, which is why least killifish in a lush tank thrive on rations that look impossibly small. A bare tank offers no such subsidy, so fish kept without plants need their pinches a little larger and more frequent. Either way, variety helps: rotate crushed flake, micro-pellets, and live or frozen baby brine shrimp and daphnia across the week.
Feeding females, males, and the fry you did not plan
A least killifish colony feeds at several sizes at once, because females give birth to a few fry at a time over an extended period rather than in one large brood. Adult females, noticeably bigger than the slender males, take the larger share of any pinch, so spread food across the surface in two or three spots so males and juveniles eat too. Newborn fry are tiny even by this species' standards and feed first on the microscopic life in moss and plant thickets; a light extra dusting of powdered fry food near the plants covers them without dumping food through the whole tank.
Portion discipline in a nano setup
Overfeeding is the main feeding risk for a least killifish, because the fish are small, the tanks are usually small, and decaying food overwhelms both quickly. Feed the measured pinch, watch it disappear, and skip the extra just-in-case sprinkle. A weekly rhythm that includes one lighter day does no harm to healthy adults that graze all day. Keep an eye on the females' shape: steadily rounded but not bloated is right, while a group that looks thin despite daily pinches may be losing food to faster tankmates or need richer live foods in the rotation.
Appetite as an early signal
A least killifish that stops picking at the surface and hangs motionless in the plants is showing you something, because grazing is this species' default state. Check water readings and temperature first, then whether a new tankmate is monopolising the feeding area. Several days of disinterest across the group, especially with clamped fins or loss of condition, calls for an aquatic veterinarian's advice. Day to day, the routine is simple but easy to duplicate when several people share one small tank, so KinsLe Care Teams assigns the least killifish's daily pinch to one person and stamps it complete when fed, keeping the ration exactly as small as intended.