Maroon Clown Paired but now having issues.

[Quah]

I paired my Gold Stripe female with a small Golden Nugget Juvenile a few months ago everything went well. Shes large maybe 4-5 inch and he is tiny maybe 1-2in. They're in a host BTA but now my future male is very emaciated I feed LRS and Mysis twice daily. I noticed him starting to get skinny and have been finely chopping up the food for about 3-4 weeks so he can take it. He never leaves the BTA and I feed directly over it so he can grab some but she rushes in and eats as well. I think she is out competing him and I plan to move them jointly into a hospital tank so he can compete better with her and remove the other fish from the mix. I don't want to move just him because then he will become a female - is this the best idea? I keep them in a 180 with 2 lyretail anthias, a yellow tail damsel, an assessor, a foxface, mimic tang, paired watchmen gobies and a spotted dragonet.

 

[Tahoe61]

I would remove him and treat for internal parasites. It takes months for a clown to change to a female, so you're all good there.
Consider adding another BTA if appropriate to your current tank stocking and status.
Large maroons can be extremely aggressive towards a submissive male. I have had females maroons out of the blue reject a male, you may need to add a larger submissive maroon.

 

[Quah]

@Tahoe61 Thank you. I had the Prazipro ready. I will be pulling him out of the aquarium and moving him to my hospital tank. I don't plan on rearing their fry or breeding them beyond what they do on their own. I mainly wanted the two for aesthetics so if she doesn't take him back when I re-introduce them, then re-homing maybe my next option. I read how aggressive they can be and knew there maybe issues when introducing them. I just figured after the initial introduction everything would be kosher. Oh - what we learn from experience.