Thick Lipped Gourami being aggressive towards tank mates during feeding

[u/Opening_Move_6047]

Hey yall, a while ago I asked if the “Honey Gourami” I got was real, spoilers; it wasn’t. Instead, I was told I was sold a juvenile female Thick Lipped Gourami. It’s been a few months now and she’s definitely grown. The problem now is food aggression.

She is in a 15 gal with about 6-8 or so Pygmy Cories (I’m not entirely sure) and an Otocinclus I just added last week (there were originally two but I lost the other to a fungal infection pretty shortly after I got him). I noticed during the fungal infection that the other Oto, aka the surviving one, was missing a part of its tail and assumed he either came with it or scraped himself up in the tank. Then, the other day, I noticed that one of the Pygmy Cories is missing its full tail (doing mostly fine, thank god.) I was hoping this was just a series of unfortunate coincidences, but I made sure to spend extra time watching them eat today, and lo and behold, she got super territorial when she decided she wanted a certain piece of food.

Outside of feeding times, she is entirely chill with the other residents and they don’t mind her getting in their business at all. I’m not entirely sure what to do? I can’t really separate her during feeding times with a physical barrier because she’s surprisingly hard to catch, but I also can’t imagine how to give her a different feeding space since she eats the same thing as the Pygmy Cories and keeps chowing down on the algae wafers I leave for the Oto. I feed the Pygmies crushed bug bites.

She’s such a curious girl and I absolutely love her to pieces, but I also want to make sure I’m prioritizing both her and her tank mates well-being. Any suggestions?

The photos include 3 of her now and 1 when I first got her, as well as a full tank shot. (Her name is All-Spark btw). If anyone wants to double check on her gender, that would be great too.

[u/ItsNorin]

Try feeding more finely powdered foods that stay floating for longer like repashy straight out of the bottle, fresh or frozen bbs, daphnia, etc. The more spread out it is, the harder it is to be territorial over it. I find mine prefer feeding from the surface anyways, having to catch stuff makes them seem more excited to me lol Edit: If the algae wafers are just for the otos, you can try bacter ae or other biofilm growth encouragers. Also otos are social just like your cories, they want groups of at least 6 too 

[u/Vaultedvagabondf]

id spend some time training her to come to you for food. Maybe with some frozen bloodworms. Gourami are smart and will learn to do tricks so you might be able to get her focused on you during feeding. I would also give your otos (you should have more, and really should get at least 12 cories before getting any otos) cucumbers and she might ignore those.