I usually get fish on pellets within a week. You just have to keep feeding pellets. They eventually break. As for the other fish getting the pellets first, keep them there. They help the Dat realize that what they're eating is food and it'll come around. I feel Hikari is a good starter pellet for fish. Every fish I've gotten on pellets start with Hikari. I know people argue that there are better pellets out there, which I won't deny, but once it starts taking pellets a switch over would only take a few days. I use NLS now a days, but will mix it up with Hikari and I just got the Xtreme brand to try out.