At a data stream management service, a first set of metadata indicating that a first isolated read channel has been associated with a first data stream is stored. The first isolated read channel has an associated read performance limit setting. A second set of metadata indicating that a second isolated read channel, with its own performance limit setting, has been associated with a data stream is also stored. Based on determining that the difference between a metric of read operations associated with the first channel and the read performance limit setting of the first channel meets a first criterion, the service initiates a throttling operation for reads associated with the first channel. The throttling decision is made independently of read metrics of the second channel.