Do clownfish start pairing young?

[thylacinedreamz]

Hi, super sorry if this is a total noob question! I did some digging around and couldn't find anything. But! Back to the topic at hand. 

 

My partner and I just introduced a second baby clownfish to our tank. Our first is about an inch and a half and the second (new) clown is about 2. Very small lil guys. The thing is the smaller one has been doing the twitches and acting submissive since we put in the newer one. Now they're never far from one another and they mirror each others actions a lot. Obvi I know they can't breed for several years but yeah, my question is just the title lol.

 

Can they begin pairing and bonding when they're babies or does that only happen when they're older too?

[SeaFurn]

I got my pair when they were even smaller than that. They competed for food to sort out which was going grow faster and end up be female (dominant) but they’ve been inseparable and bonding from the very beginning - despite all the abuse the male ended up being on the receiving end of. 

[thylacinedreamz]

36 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

I got my pair when they were even smaller than that. They competed for food to sort out which was going grow faster and end up be female (dominant) but they’ve been inseparable and bonding from the very beginning - despite all the abuse the male ended up being on the receiving end of. 

Ahhhh, thank you! These two haven't even been competing for food during mealtime, pfft! The regular ocellaris is the one that has been doing the twitching and getting chased (tho very minimally) so I have a little inkling that one may turn into my male haha.