Flame gouramis hiding???

[ShawnKC]

I have a 30 gallon breeder tank with 2 male flame gouramis, 6 zebra danios and 6 black skirt tetras and an emerald cory. The gouramis most of the time seem to hide among the plants and tree root decorations. I have never seen them chased or bullied by any of the other fish or each other and come out of hiding at feeding time.
Do they normally hide or stay close to the bottom of the tank? I am concerned by this, they are both healthy but just seem shy.

 

[ShawnKC]

This is the tank.

 

[bettaowner]

Zebra danios are very active so maybe the Gouramis are scared.

 

[ShawnKC]

I guess that's possible. When they do come out to swim around, they don't look to be scared by the other fish and to be honest, the tetras zoom around alot more than the danios. Maybe I should set up a separate tank for the gouramis?

 

[tamtam]

Try adding more Decor, plants mostly. I have a sunset gourami and he's pretty timid. He spent a lot of time hiding the first while I had him. I have been adding more cover and he's started to venture out a lot more. I recently upgraded to a 30 gallon and the last 2 days since he's hiding a lot more, it's pretty empty with just the decor from the 20 so I'm sure this is why. He either stays low with most of the decor/cover or up high by the heater or filter intake.

Floating plants would help as well. I have a few stems from a plastic plant I yanked off floating around and he gets up there hanging around.

 

[tamtam]

this is my 30 gallon to give you an idea of what he has for cover

I had all of this in the 20 and he was very active. He's started to venture out a bit more but I know I need a but more cover, especially taller plants and floating stuff.