Picked On Dwarf Gourami

[confusion]

So, I have a 55G community tank with a male and female pearl gourami. I added a dwarf fire gourami last week and both the male and female pearl picked on him to no end. Just constantly chasing him and bumping into him. These pearls have been very very peaceful to the other tankmates up to this point - swordtails, black neons, serpae tetras, and honey gold gouramis.

So, I put him into my 30G tank that has 2 dwarf gouramis which have been well behaved. And almost immediately, the dominant male in that tank started picking on him too.

I'm beginning to think my dwarf fire goruami has a "kick me" sign on him. Any ideas? Are some gouramis just submissive like this and disposed to being picked on?

 

[dwarfgourami]

He is a new guy coming into the other gouramis' territory. Gouramis are highly territorial and it is often only possible to keep one male gourami per tank.

 

[confusion]

In the past day things have calmed down. They're coexisting pretty well now. The pearls are just too aggressive for him to be in that tank.