Introduced a new Saddleback. Not sure how it's going...

[TonysReef]

So I got a smaller saddleback to introduce to the one I've had for about six months.

Used an acclimation box:

My female didn't show too much interest, she rarely strays too far from her haddonis unless it's for food. She did pop up and check out the newcomer a couple of times though. The juvinile is maybe half the size of the resident as far as mass goes. I intentionally picked a small one out of a group at the store so that it would likely be immature.

At first my female seemed to tolerate it, and at the moment they still seem to go through phases. Sometimes the small one is cowering in a cave, sometimes getting chased around casually, sometimes chased quite meanly. I had decided to catch him and throw in the towel this morning, but he made it to the rock work and then an hour or two later they were seemingly OK with each other again.

Made a video to better tell the story. What does everyone think? Is this normal behaviour for a few days while the resident comes to terms with the invader? Should I give up on it and just accept having one clown? I had tried introducing a three slightly larger ones that were alone before (presumably already females in hindsight) and my resident went nuts, so I'm confident this is going much better than that.

Anyway, appreciate all thoughts.

 

[Peace River]

Dominance and aggression is part of their wiring - it is part of what makes clowns weird, wonderful, and frustrating. What you described sounds like normal clown behavior and I usually tolerate it as long as there is no body damage. IMO I would avoid keeping more than a pair of clowns unless you have a large tank (I didn't notice the size of your tank).

 

[TonysReef]

Dominance and aggression is part of their wiring - it is part of what makes clowns weird, wonderful, and frustrating. What you described sounds like normal clown behavior and I usually tolerate it as long as there is no body damage. IMO I would avoid keeping more than a pair of clowns unless you have a large tank (I didn't notice the size of your tank).

It's a 72G. And I only want a pair. My aim in introducing a few last time around was that the resident would warm to one and I would remove the other two. Didn't play out that way though.

 

[sprungson]

So I got a smaller saddleback to introduce to the one I've had for about six months.

Used an acclimation box:

My female didn't show too much interest, she rarely strays too far from her haddonis unless it's for food. She did pop up and check out the newcomer a couple of times though. The juvinile is maybe half the size of the resident as far as mass goes. I intentionally picked a small one out of a group at the store so that it would likely be immature.

At first my female seemed to tolerate it, and at the moment they still seem to go through phases. Sometimes the small one is cowering in a cave, sometimes getting chased around casually, sometimes chased quite meanly. I had decided to catch him and throw in the towel this morning, but he made it to the rock work and then an hour or two later they were seemingly OK with each other again.

Made a video to better tell the story. What does everyone think? Is this normal behaviour for a few days while the resident comes to terms with the invader? Should I give up on it and just accept having one clown? I had tried introducing a three slightly larger ones that were alone before (presumably already females in hindsight) and my resident went nuts, so I'm confident this is going much better than that.

Anyway, appreciate all thoughts.

Hey it looks like it's going well. I have a 3 inch saddleback with a 1 inch ocellairus and at first the saddleback was not interested. About a week later they host an anemone together.