Dwarf Gourami eating Pygmy Cory's food

Hey everyone! I currently have a 10 gallon planted tank that's a blackwater tank with driftwood, lots of plants, and dragon stone. It's stocked with a powder blue dwarf gourami and 6 pygmy corys. Every time I try to feed my pygmy's Hikari Sinking wafers ( HIKARI Tropical Sinking Wafers Fish Food Size: 1.76 Ounces ) my darn dwarf gourami comes up and eats it all. It doesn't seem like my pygmy's get anything and if one comes close when he's there he will chase them away, the little stinker. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to ensure my pygmy Cory's get food? They are fairly new and fresh out of quarantine and I'm worried that they might not be getting anything to eat. I recently purchased Repashy gel food in hopes that they would get to that faster but I have a feeling my dwarf gourami will just eat all of that too. I'm fairly new to keeping both of these species of fish, so any advice on them would be appreciated! I'm also planning on adding 6 neon tetras as well to the tank, but maybe they would eat all of the cory's food too?

 

First, you might try adding the wafers after the lights are out. The corys will still find it.

Second, I wouldn't add any more fish unless you upgrade to a larger tank

 

The dwarf gourami could injure those little cories, Dwarf gourami are very aggressive. Have to spot feed fish from food grubby fish is an issue with many species. One solution is feeding the gourami at a seporate end of the tank, and feeding the cories at the other at the same time. If that is not enough, you can purchase some one inch or so tubbing, drop the food down through it, while feedinf the gourami, so he doesnt see the food falling down.

I would not ad neons, your tank is not large enough for 2 schools of fish and the gourami. And yes they would eat the cories food, though much less aggressivily. I would think, "never tried" that if it were just neons and cories, that the food would be shared. as they are more evenly matched.

You may want to try different food, that Hikari junk is a mass of junk fillers. consider bug bites, new life spectrum thera plus A, and Xtreme bottom wafers.

 

I had the same thing happen to my fish except it was glass bloodfin tetras that ate the cories food, the bloodfins food was to big for them so I had started to crush it but then they were done with it quicker so the cories hardly got any time to eat so I stopped crushing it in the end, but one thing I tried to do is hide it under the cave were the tetras never went so the cories could find it, maybe try something similar if you can.

 

First, you might try adding the wafers after the lights are out. The corys will still find it.

Second, I wouldn't add any more fish unless you upgrade to a larger tank

Ok, I will try this more. I've tried it a bit on and off but my dwarf gourami still seems to find them.

The dwarf gourami could injure those little cories, Dwarf gourami are very aggressive. Have to spot feed fish from food grubby fish is an issue with many species. One solution is feeding the gourami at a seporate end of the tank, and feeding the cories at the other at the same time. If that is not enough, you can purchase some one inch or so tubbing, drop the food down through it, while feedinf the gourami, so he doesnt see the food falling down.

I would not ad neons, your tank is not large enough for 2 schools of fish and the gourami. And yes they would eat the cories food, though much less aggressivily. I would think, "never tried" that if it were just neons and cories, that the food would be shared. as they are more evenly matched.

You may want to try different food, that Hikari junk is a mass of junk fillers. consider bug bites, new life spectrum thera plus A, and Xtreme bottom wafers.

I will have to try the feeding thing at different ends of the tank. I had no idea that Hikari wasn't a good brand, I had read a lot of good things about it on amazon reviews and had seen it recommended in other forums, my bad! Is rapashy gel food a better alternative?

Also would it be ok to add a different species other than neons? I took this stocking recommendation from AqAdvisors "10g peaceful community tank" but I couldn't find pygmy corries in my LFS so I bought them online through Aquahuna. They only came in a pack of six so I plugged in the stocking and was stocked perfectly at 100% with my filter and tank size? Sorry for all the questions, I'm still pretty new to the hobby and this is my first 10 gallon tank, just want to make sure everything is happy and healthy!

I had the same thing happen to my fish except it was glass bloodfin tetras that ate the cories food, the bloodfins food was to big for them so I had started to crush it but then they were done with it quicker so the cories hardly got any time to eat so I stopped crushing it in the end, but one thing I tried to do is hide it under the cave were the tetras never went so the cories could find it, maybe try something similar if you can.

Oooo that is a smart idea to hide the food, I will also try this out. Thank you!