Your male looks like he's pretty much there, girl might be putting out signs to him she is ready. Unless he really damages her like takes out huge chunks I would leave them in together. A nip here and there is nothing to be worried about with clean water, add some salt for bigger wounds. He has to learn what he's doing. My male bit my female off and on for 6 months the first time until he learned what to do. They were 8 and 10" when he started bitting. I had to seperate one time in that time period as I feared for her. He took about 1-1.5" of her disk off both sides of her back one night with the lights out. Couple weeks healing time, made sure she was eating good and I let him back at it.
