Need feeding suggestions for community tank with mixed-size fish

[Emily in Everett]

I have a community 90-gallon tank with clown loaches (1 large 6" and several small 3"), young geophagus tapajos, some pearl gouramis, and a school of leopard danios.

All the other larger fish are doing great, and the danios look absolutely fabulous darting around the top half of the tank around the larger fish. BUT it seems impossible to avoid overfeeding them when trying to get food to the larger denizens of the deep. The danios dash to the bottom and gorge themselves on any food I provide (pellets, blanched veggies, bug bites, freeze dried krill, brine shrimp or krill thawed from frozen) until they are so grotesquely bloated they can barely swim well. I'm worried about bloat issues, and also now have two danios that have abruptly gone from overfed to emaciated in the last few weeks. I've stopped feeding surface food (flakes, dried bloodworms, etc.) entirely, to avoid overfeeding them. But it doesn't seem to matter because they'll race to wherever the food is. 

If in a danio-only tank I'd just feed them more sparsely, but I can't do that without starving the big guys.

Am I trying to run an impossible community (e.g., should I remove the danios to a tank of their own and replace with larger fish on top?). Or are there tricks I don't know about that would help me manage their self harm through gluttony?

Edited August 3, 2021 by Emily in Everett

[Emily in Everett]

[Odd Duck]

Have you tried feeding different foods in different locations at the same time?  For instance, a floating, or slowly sinking food to the danios at one end, while you feed a faster sinking food to the other fish on the other end.

Or maybe target feed to the lower fish using a turkey baster, long tongs, or “coral feeder” (skinnier and longer, essentially a turkey baster but more precise) while keeping the danios distracted with a tiny sprinkle at a time to their feeding area?

Theoretically, you could train the danios to eat inside a breeder net, first by holding it sideways and placing sinking food inside it.  Then as they got used to eating inside it, gradually moving it upright so they are inside it while eating.  Then you could feed everybody else while the danios are in the breeder net.  It would also make catching them easier.  That’s how they train koi or zoo/large aquarium fish (or other huge aquarium inhabitants) to swim into a net for physical exams.

[HH Morant]

Try feeding the big fish something that is too big for the little fish to swallow, like large pellets.

[Emily in Everett]

Both good suggestions I could try, thank you - though isolating the danios for each feeding seems a bit laborious over time! I do manage to get the larger pieces (krill and large pellets) to the big guys - though their favorite seems to be thawed brine shrimp which the danios gobble.