Clownfish hybrid nipping/aggression question

[rtelles]

Hello. I've had a female mai tai clown (hybrid maroon and ocellaris) and juvie black ocellaris for about 5 months, and though the mai tai has asserted dominance in the past and nipped at the smaller clown, they generally get along fine and share the same half of the tank without issue. I recently added a pair of rbta (purchased just after the larger nem split, so one of them is quite small) that the female immediately hosted and her aggression has kicked up considerably. The smaller clown has some relatively badly nipped fins (tail and back, mostly) and I'm not sure what threshold I should use before deciding whether to separate them. He's still swimming okay and seems perfectly normal aside from the missing fin pieces, and he still hovers near the rbta (and sleeps in the smaller one) and crosses paths with the female regularly without issue (I just watched them swimming right next to each other for a few seconds without any problems), but every once in a while she'll become incredibly aggressive and drive him away from the nem.

 

My question is whether any of you have had similar experiences and if this is something I should really worry about. I've read on these and other forums that often times it takes a while before clowns pair up and that dominant displays and nipping often last a really long time, and that it can be exacerbated by the addition of a nem, but at what point is it clear that one clown has rejected the other? I also wonder if anyone else had had experiences with a hybrid like my female? Worst-case, if the aggression continues, I'll rehome the female and try to find a more appropriate tank-mate for the black ocellaris, but for now I guess I'll keep an eye on them.

 

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[rtelles]

So it looks like my female just needed some time to establish boundaries with the new rbta. The male has healed up almost completely and is now regularly sleeping in the smaller rbta with no issues, though he gets kicked out in the morning and when the female decides he has to go (clownfish are weird). They follow each other around the tank and the male has started regularly submitting. They've always tolerated each other, but I guess I'll go ahead and call them a pair now, which is both exciting and a huge relief.