When would you separate maroon clowns?

[Zephyrsue]

Hello!

I also asked this on reef central but have received no responses... I have a 54gal corner tank currently stocked with a snowflake moray eel, a green chromis (tried a small school- bought 5 and hoped for 2/3 to make it but as chromis do, just the one seemed to be the victor. Alas, he seems content), and two new young maroon clownfish- a lightning maroon and a gold nugget x lightning maroon. I ordered both of the maroons off of ORA and the GNXLM is probably about 1.5” in length and the LM is a bit smaller, about 1-1.25” in length. I’ve had them for about a week. The GNXLM is clearly the more dominant of the two and seems to keep the LM sort of corralled near the heater and will charge him if he gets too far away. They of course had their expected “sizing up” and a bit of wrestling the first couple of days but both seem completely unharmed. The GNXLM seems very confident and content, as I recognize in all of the false percs I’ve had and “she” surprisingly leaves my chromis alone. The LM on the other hand seems very anxious and orients himself at an angle and hoovers by the heater or sometimes goes and hangs out in the rock pile with the eel (who is easily 14-16” in length but very well fed so leaves my fish alone besides curiously looking sometimes). My question is, this behavior has persisted over a week. Do you think the maroons have a chance of “pairing” and becoming BFFs? They weren’t exactly cheap so I don’t want either of them to get hurt or die from stress but I don’t want to step in and prevent a potential pairing just because I’m nervous about it myself. I do have a spare 10gal that I can get set up if need be and would probably just keep the LM in there by himself, but I feel like if I do that then he will definitely become a female as well and I will have to keep them separated indefinitely and eventually have to get a second larger tank as he grows. I would rather prevent all of that - I got them in hopes to have a nice pair lol. Any words of advise

[Jesterrace]

I would give it a few more days, just check and see if you can see damage to the other fish.  If you start seeing damage, one needs to come out ASAP.  Just me but I wouldn't touch anything but an Occ or Percula variety clown.  The others are just too aggressive IMHO.  

[Zephyrsue]

11 hours ago, Jesterrace said:

I would give it a few more days, just check and see if you can see damage to the other fish.  If you start seeing damage, one needs to come out ASAP.  Just me but I wouldn't touch anything but an Occ or Percula variety clown.  The others are just too aggressive IMHO.  

Thanks, I’ll just monitor for now as no damage. In general, I do agree that it’s better to stick with the more chill varieties, but I wanted something that could stand up to the eel if he ever gets any naughty ideas lol. As of now, he’s really the most relaxed in the tank though! If all goes as planned, it’ll likely end up being just him and the maroons in there and the chromis will either live out his natural life in there or I’ll remove him to his own smaller tank if anyone starts giving him trouble.

[Tamberav]

I would just wait it out some more. Maroons can be butts and doesn't sound like the smaller one is getting beat up or physically hurt.