skittish gourami

Hey All

My community tank is +- 60cm x 55cm x 45cm, roughly 120 litres and has medium plant coverage, some branchy driftwood and medium light.
(please excuse the bad cellphone pic!)



Fauna includes 6 panda corys, 8 glowlight tetras, 3 SAEs, a Pearl Gourami pair and a trio of Thick-Lipped Gouramis.

All the fish are doing well except the thick-lipped gouramis, especially the male. They're very shy and skittish and spend most of their time hiding in the back of the tank amongst the vallis and aponogetons. If anything moves close to the tank the thick-lipped gouramis will flee in blind panic, usually crashing into decor or into the sides of tank.

I initially thought the male pearl gourami was bullying them, but I've never seen him chase anything except his own girlfriend

Whats up with the thick-lips? they're obviously stressed but I'm unsure what to do about that. more plants? less plants? rehome them?

 

Thick lip gouramis do have a tendancy to hide between the plants and behind decor, mine decided to move in behind a piece of driftwood and my amazon swords and spend most of their time there and is terrotorial about their space, swimmimg into decor and tank sides, that is a problem, mine don't do it, maybe create a more sheltered hiding place for them, that should solve the problem.