Mandarin Dragonet Aggression

[KeepSwimming12]

I’ve had a male mandarin dragonet in my seahorse tank for 3 months and he’s going great. My last one had velvet and unfortunately died so I’ve taken extra extra precautions with this guy. Today, after 3 months of being in the tank, I decided to buy a female for him. When I introduced her in the bag he seemed very interested. When I released her she bit him once. Since then, he has not stopped chasing her, biting her and flaring. What is strange is she is a lot bigger than he is so you’d think it would be the other way around. Is there any chance that this might stop or have they not been bitten by the love bug?
Thank you

 

[N.Sreefer]

In the wild female mandarins choose the largest male the one who won out amongst the males gathered for mating. Where he's smaller than her he's likely trying to force her to mate with him or he's being territorial and trying to drive the female out where he doesn't feel the need to mate. I would bet on the latter as mating occurs after dark.