best sweetlips

[youngspecialist]

I am very interested in several sweetlips species...overall i would love to keep either the striped sweetlips or the harlequin...the tank is 90 gallons so the harlequine would eventually need to go...has anyone had sucess feeding either of these species?...and how fast do they grow??

[rayn]

I don't think any sweetlips will last long in a 90. I would think atleast a 8 foot tank minimum. I've considered them before too, but I wont till I get a very large tank.

[MrTuskfish]

I don't think any sweetlips will last long in a 90. I would think atleast a 8 foot tank minimum. I've considered them before too, but I wont till I get a very large tank.

Yeah. this is a very large and difficult group of fish. A 90 isn't nearly big enough for any of them. like lots of fish, cute when small, but get huge. many are really "expert only' fish.

[youngspecialist]

thanks for the insite...it seems tht bluezooaquatics and liveaquaria are contradicting each other (i trust both resources)...while bluezoo says 100 gallons (for a striped), liveaquaria ranks them at 210 gallons...i will play it safe and avoid them

[Recty]

I personally think my wife has the best sweet lips.

[TripleT]

i personally think my wife has the best sweet lips.

+1

[TripleT]

My wife, that is. ;)

[rnscross]

lol almost put your foot in there tripleT

[Recty]

I laughed when I read it too, then you corrected yourself later :) Better hope your wife didnt read these forums in the meantime... you might be sleeping on the couch a while.

[namxas]

I dunno whether you picked up on the "cute when small, but get large", but that's not all...the adult coloration of these fish is actually pretty "uncute", so you end up with huge, dull-looking fish that most peeps wouldn't keep had they looked that way in the beginning.

[Sitarangi]

Atlantic porkfish (if you can find them) would do well in a 90g long-term. You could easily keep a trio in there. IME sweetlips mysteriously drop dead and never seem to eat frozen foods. I have kept them going for a few months in a store system feeding them heavily with live blackworms and then frozen bloodworms. Still even after that, ill come in one day and they'll be dead. Bigger ones (12" + w/ adult colors) seem do to do better than the little ones that always get shipped out. Yellow breams (Scolopsis bilineatus) and tobacco bass would also do well in a 90g if your looking for that grunt/sweetlips/hamlet kind of fish