while I am an undying optimist in many ways... I also cannot deny statistics.
There are few fishes in the hobby trade that are so categorically unsuitable for captivity as the entire group/family of fishes we know as "sweetlips"
The staggering majority of them suffer a slow death by starvation.
The few that do eat prepared foods still die dietary deficiency sooner rather than later.
And if all that were not true, and our/your best hopes bear out... namely - the fish lives and thrives, we are then faced with the sobering reality that they have an adult size of about 2 feet long and cannot live full lives in any home aquarium I've ever seen.
in this case, the harlequin sweetlips is cited as growing over 2 feet long
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spe...ame=Plectorhinchus&speciesname=chaetodonoides
sigh...
That all said, I have seen a 14 year old specimen of this species in (believe it or not) a modest 500 gallon aquarium. The keeper kept this as the only fish in that tank for its whole life.
And... the fish was lovingly fed live fishes (brackish livebearer's and saltwater fishes on occasion) that were kept faithfully in a quarantine tank for 4-8 weeks before use as prey... AND... the prey was "gut-loaded" (stuffed with nutritious froze and dry meaty and green based foods). A remarkable aquarist.
I am sorry to say that your fish is almost certainly going to die prematurely.
And while I can fully empathize with your motivation for "saving" it... I'd like to take this opportunity to remind others that buying a hopeless fish from a merchant not only does not save the specimen, but rather encourages the reorder of another to fill the void (and kills who knows how many others in the process of collection and import just to get one live one to the merchant).
I realize that you did not buy this one, my friend. Again, I was just using the post as an opportunity to build a(nother) warning for others in the archives.
For this fish... do try to offer it gut loaded live food: guppies fed dry and frozen foods... and ghost shrimp fed Beta Glucan (from the GNC health food store... immunity boosting matter).
However... if there are any other community fishes in the tank (damsels, wrasses, clowns, tangs, etc.) this will not work. Sweetlips are easily disturbed/intimidated and put off their feed by the activity of typical community fishes... even if the tankmates do not literally nip or harass them.
I wish I had better news, mate
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