How to get young fish to eat well when older stronger fish are eating all the food?

I think young fish need to eat well and more frequently (like 3X a day) to grow bigger faster.

But when you already have various fish in your tank most of which are mature and 2 to 3 inches long, and you just added this new juvenile fish that's only 0.75 inch long, how do you ensure it is eating well so that it can grow big and strong promptly?

The other older bigger fish are faster and more dominant so they get to all the food that the little one hardly ends up getting anything.

I am thinking I should just take out the little guy into a separate tank just during feeding time to feed him alone and then put him back in my main tank. Will that work or will that do more harm by causing stress from going into a separate container for feeding back and forth three times a day?

 

Crumble food to a powder which you feed simultaniously with bigger flakes / food. The bigger fish will be more interested in the bigger parts and will have more difficulty to eat the tiny parts fast .

 

We break it up smaller and feed a little more in our platy tanks so the fry have a better chance to get some food with the adults around.

 

You can feed a combination of floating and sinking foods. This worked for some runts that were getting bullied. Also try feeding a pellet that’s too big for their mouths so they have to pick at it instead of gulping it all down.

 

You do not say what species the adults are.
In my opinion sometimes it’s just a lot easier to have young juveniles in a separate tank even when the adults do not / can not eat them. Corydoras and BN plecos are an example of adults that out compete their young for food but do not eat the young.

roxyfan,
What you say is correct. Juveniles need more food than adults.
Juveniles also need multiple water changes each week to remove growth hormones. If you have a cloud of dozens of juveniles it only makes sense to have them in a separate cycled tank.IMO.