Oriental Sweetlips- misled purchase

[socalnano24]

I was recently in the market for a new clown fish. While at the LFS (one I had not gone to previously), I was looking in their clown tank and noticed a brightly colored brown fish with white creame spots. It swam like a clown and looked similar despite its long tail. It was such a stunning specimen I asked the owner some information about it and whether it would be a good fish for my aquarium. He stated it was a harlequin sweetlips and would go great in my 24 gallon nano reef tank.
Upon arriving home and acclimating the guy to my tank; I looked up some more information about him. I quickly realized it was not a harlequin and after doing some more research determined he is an orinetal sweetlips juvenile, about 2.5 inches long.
My question is how long do I have before he gets to about 5 inches long at which point he will outgrow my tank and I will be forced to trade him out.
[in advance, i feel bad for buying a fish that will outgrow my tank, but thought I could trust the fish store owner with advice]
I will follow up with a picture when I get home

 

[aquaknight]

Their adult size is only the secondary problem. 99% of these guys die within the first month due to not accepting prepared foods.

 

[ophiura]

Yes, I agree, the odds of it outgrowing your tank are virtually non-existent. Possible, but very unlikely...

 

[socalnano24]

As promised here is a picture. Too bad on the survivability; I am not planning on returning to that shop for purchases unless I've researched it independently. He has eaten frozen brine shrimp thus far; and seems to be very interested in sand sifting and picking algae off my rocks (strange since they are carnivores) so far has left my polyps and shrimp alone.

 

[aquaknight]

Interesting...
I would say a lot of the reason why these guys don't survive has to do with a general lack of knowledge. What you describe is pretty interesting. It sort of sounds as juvi, Sweetlips might have a similar diet to a pod eater, say something like a leopard wrasse. Because they are larger fish, even if they nibble on frozen brine here and there, it probably isn't enough to sustain them.
So I guess, I would try offering more foods then just brine, mysis, Artic-Pods, and scallops. With a cheese grater, try shaving a scallop into fine little pieces. Of course soaking all the foods in Vita-Chem/Selcon/Zoe/Zoecon prior to feeding.

 

[socalnano24]

Sweet, thanks for the tip. I'll try some grated scallop or fish in the vita-chem. I'll try to keep progress assuming he lasts for a while. Are mysis and artic-pods live or frozen?

 

[aquaknight]

Mysis is frozen. If you can, look for P.E. Mysis . They're a bit larger then standard mysis, but they're also enriched.
Arcti-Pods is refrigerated. Basically a bottle of harvested pods. Not every LFS will have them, but they are becoming pretty popular.

 

[socalnano24]

oh and to close the thread, the sweetlips did end up dying after 3 weeks in my tank, for no apparent reason...this was about two weeks ago....

 

[hlcroghan]

So sorry to hear that. They sure are pretty as young fish. I really wish LFS owner weren't just out to make a buck.....it's almost ridiculous some of the stuff I hear at stores.