Male Gourami Always Hiding!

[Ali-Jack]

Morning all, hope you're all well?
I have a 3 month old 38L (10G) tank which is fairly well planted and has a small shoal of tetras, pygmy corys and 3 honey gouramis (1 male and 2 female). My issue is the male gourami is always hiding at the rear of the tank behind the filter and whenever he tries to come out the females seem to bully him back! He always has the black colouration on his underside and did build a bubble nest a week ago, but this has now disappeared as the females don't seem interested in him! I thought it was the males who bullied the females! Is this normal? Is it to do with the size of my tank? Can anyone explain why he's so shy?
Thanks in advance

 

[Ruskull]

Yeah, the tank size is a bit small even for Honey Gouramis. I had 3 in a 20 gallon and it was just about right. My male only chased the females a little bit.

 

[Ali-Jack]

Thanks for the reply
Is it normal for the females to chase the male? I've recently bought a 23G tank and gonna be swapping it over soon, so hopefully they'll be happier in there! I couldn't get away with adding any more honey gourami's to the 23G then?

 

[Ruskull]

Yeah but you should probably only add females.