Looking for info. on Sweetlips Clownfish

[FOX]

Just wondering if anyone has any info. on these fish. I've been eyeing them at the store lately, but seem to remember someone saying that they are very difficult to keep. This is one fish I have no info. or experience with.

FOX

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angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef.htm (http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef/)

[Q-ball]

Not like this is alot of info, but I thought the sweetlips was a member of the grouper family? Cool fish though, I'll be interested in seeing the responses you get...

Q

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Got tired of the last signature, and haven't
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=;o)~

[JamesB]

I know that this isn't going to be that much help, but I looked at these fish pretty hard a couple years ago before deciding that I probably couldn't keep them. The bad news is that, other than they are a grouper, I can't remember what attribute(s) made me decide this fish was better left in the ocean.

Not much help, James.

[billsreef]

Hey FOX I seem to remember you asking this once before. Here goes...

Sweetlips are very finicky eaters, they do not readily accept normal aquarium fare, as a result most die from starvation in captivity. The best results I have had, and the few others I know that have had sucess, is to start them off with small grass shrimp. They seem to like the grass shrimp and take to them pretty quickly. Of course this assumes you have a steady supply of the critters. Once they have been feeding steadily on the live shrimp it is possible to induce them to eat other fare. Occasionally I have heard and seen success with the use of feeder guppys but on the whole the grass shrimp seem to have the higher success rate IME.

HTH

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Bill

If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos (http://hometown.aol.com/billsreef/)
ICQ 56222784

[LisaJill]

Pretty huh? They can be acclimated, the smaller you get 'em the better.. the main problem with them being is that they get to 60cm, and go a drab olive green type colour.. pretty as juveniles, and I'm not sure how fast they grow. They'll eat inverts too (not corals, usually), but they're pretty docile.

Also, they are not a clownfish.. not sure which, maybe a grouper as mentioned before, I just know they're not clownfish :)

Lisa

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[This message has been edited by LisaJill (edited 07-24-2000).]

[FOX]

Thanks for the info.

Billsreef, Yes, I think I did ask about them a couple of years ago, but I either didn't get much response, or I blew it off and didn't remember what was said. I probably set my sights on another fish and didn't pay much attention to what was said.

I did know that they are groupers, not clownfish, but for some reason the lfs here calls them Sweetlips Clownfish. That's why I referred to it that way.

Hmmmm. Hard to make up my mind on this one. The one currently at the lfs is all ready eating frozen foods and looks nice and fat, but even my 220 isn't near big enough for a 60cm fish. I wonder how long it would take this one to outgrow the tank from it's current 4".

FOX

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angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef.htm (http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef/)

[billsreef]

All ready eating frozen foods? Sounds like a winner to me :) Hmmm, time to start planning a 500gal tank to fit the grown sweetlips into in a few years :D

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Bill

If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos (http://hometown.aol.com/billsreef/)
ICQ 56222784

[FOX]

Billsreef,

Yeah, actually, I just brought him home this aftenoon and to my surprise, when I went to feed silversides to my anemones, he went nuts over them. I just hope it takes a few years to outgrow the tank. We're planning an addition some time down the road with a fish room.

FOX

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angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef.htm (http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef/)

[billsreef]

That's the beauty of owning your own home,you can actually plan such things :) Enjoy your Sweetlips. BTW I forget to mention before that they are in the Grunt family.

[Heinrich]

Fox you should be alright.
I know some people who had them for years 4+ in four foot tanks.
The 60cm ~24" is in the wild. Not likely to get huge as fast in a 6 footer. Although they will eat shrimp and smaller fish. Although most leave cleaners alone.
Not a beuatiful fish when old but very trainable once they accept frozen foods. Not especially active, so tank size wont be quite as much of an issue. Waste much more so.
Generally not so aggressive.
It's odd that you guys are reporting them to feed so poorly, we seldomly had a problem with getting them to eat. We did give the guys that weren't eating a hyposalinity quarantine, which sometimes helped.
Grasshrimp fed along with frozen krill usually did it. A strongly eating hawkfish or puffer usually tought them to eat.
We also never got them bigger 2-3" and more seasonally. They were far less expensive then and supre cute.
Like a little pitbull.
I've heard that it is helpful to feed them unpeeled shrimp, which we usually did. Also because it serves as roughage and better nutrition. Piece of yarn and play jig fishing and most predators will go for it.
Good luck.
93! Heinric

[Scorpion]

yeah i tried one about a year ago, it was a mistake i regret because it's one of the few fish i've lost ,and stupid as i was i listened to someone else ( THE WIFE ) :love1: she fell in love with it and it was a stupid impulse buy .I was disappointed aswell because the shop man said they were easy, and i've known him a long time, anyway i've since found out that they need continual feeding anyway that's what i've been told since and i think mine starved . :sad1:

[Reefette]

Reading through this thread, I realize I must be one of the lucky ones. I bought a clown sweetlips about 3 years ago and he is doing fine. He took to frozen brine immediately. I think he was about 2 inches when I bought him and now he is about 3 1/2 to 4 inches snout to vent. So he is growing pretty slowly. Luckily he still hasn't changed out of his juvi colors to his ugly adult colors yet. :)

p.s. he did eat 5 peppermint shrimp and 2 very large cleaner shrimp. :( I have heard they will eat anything they can get their mouth around, even if it's bigger than them.

Here's a picture of him to make sure were talking about the same species.

[ReefMonger]

If you can get your hands on one the striped Sweetlips has alot better survivability and eats very readily. At least the 2 that I have had. They both ate Formula 1,2,krill, brine shrimp, silversides, and flake

[firechild]

Clown sweetlip: Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides

I've seen these fish a number of times at the LFS as juveniles (3") and they are very nice fish but as mentioned, they grow big (over 75cm; 30") and have a much duller adult colouration which although is nice, doesn't compare to the bright colour of the juvenile.