Moorish Idol
- Thread starter tankanator
- Start date
A good success story seems to be a year. Not great at all, even a shrimp will live 2 years and a bit longer. They require a specialized diet rich in sponge although I think some are having some success with a new kind of pellet being put out.
My worries is that a parent brings there kids in the LFS and sees scar from finding nemo and wants it, parent buys scar not knowing anything about the fish takes it home and it dies a couple of days later. I know that you would hope that the LFS would ask questions and worn the buyer about the fish, but on a busy day everything is hectic and before you know it the fish is gone.
I understand Tank, I feel for your position. If you do buy it you might try telling the manager/owner why you are.
And check into the pellets as well. I think they are Spectrum pellets, I read about them on WWM a few weeks ago.
And check into the pellets as well. I think they are Spectrum pellets, I read about them on WWM a few weeks ago.
Its your call; getting them to eat is the biggest hurdle; in the wild, I believe they eat almost nothing but sponge. I had one for 9+ years (a Katrina victim) and it would eat just about anything.It started eating when I left a whole, opened cherrystone clam in the tank.It is a fish for experts; but they are very abundant in the wild and like you are saying "someone will buy it". Also, if it's a Hawaiian fish, you're 99% sure it hasn't been caught with cyanide! I care about fish and do the best I can; but I don't go on a guilt trip if I lose one. Good luck and keep us posted!
Thanks for all the feed back but my daughter and her boyfriend went to the LFS to buy it and was gone, my daughter started to ask around the store and found out that it had died just this morning. So I'm glad that I waited, I hope that they learned from this, they are not the type that would go out and get another one just to have it.
I'd think that most people don't give them the tank space they need, nor the diet, and thus they deteriorate and die. It should do well in your 180. I'd go for it. It has a better chance in your tank than it would in someone else's 55. It's already in captivity, so not much you can do about that particular fish being taken from the wild. I understand that by buying it you are considered by some to condone taking them from the wild, but I think there's an issue of what's best for the animal now that it has already been taken.
Aww, man! That sucks that it died, but I'm really glad for you that you didn't fork out the cash only to have it die in your tank the next day.
As I recall, this isn't a fish that comes cheap.
As I recall, this isn't a fish that comes cheap.
Suchs to hear that the fish died but,
going off my previous post here are some things I learned from reading the morish idol article.
Feeding:
"one will hear the clainm that the moorish idol is a finicky feeder, In general the moorish idol has a voracious appetite and oftern feeds on dried flake food within hours of being intoduced into an aquarium" He goes on to say that sometimes they dont feed for a couple of days and that sometimes they starve themselves to death but that he would not call these moorish idols "finicky eaters"
"in nature its diet consists of sponge, algae, tunicates, crustaceans, worms, clams, and other inverts" "it also feed to some extent on corals and anemones, dead fish and fruit that has fallen into the sea"
he goes on to say
" a good captive diet for the MI is basically a large volume of everything that it eats, normally it eats just about everything ifferedm but individual specimens do exhibit preferences"
"when I say large volume I intened to suffest that it be fed several times per day, the need to feed the MI so often is reduced if it is housed in a large aquarium with a heavy growth of algae and associated arganisms upon which it may graze"
"some items that are generally accepted by the MI include: flake food pellets, fresh seaweeds, dried seaweeds, earthworms, bloodworms, blackworms,brine shrimp, mysis, chopped shrimp clams , chopped squid, frozen peas, and bananas it is important to include a large portion of vegtable matter to its diet and dried seaweeds is the best way to accomplish this"
Ill give you a little on water quality
keep ates below 50 like any reef fish
keep SG stable but they can tolarate anywhere from .018-.030
"it is benificial then to use a night illumination on a refugium w/ algae or at least a surface skimming overflow to maintain adequate nightime oxygen levels"
Buying tips
"avoid specimens that have sunlen stomach area damage to the moth area as evidence by sores and any signs of cryptocaryon or amyloodinium" infestation
"the fish should not be shy and hiding but should instead be out front boldly swimming or pacing"
"newly imported specimens, stressed specimens and very small juveniles will have pale, washed out coloring"
"in larger specimens it is a good sign when the black areas are very balck and a bad sign when they are pale"
"this fish should be feed well and not be intimidated by the feeding of its tankmates"
Hope this helped a little at least now more people have a better understanding about this mysterious fish. :cheers:
going off my previous post here are some things I learned from reading the morish idol article.
Feeding:
"one will hear the clainm that the moorish idol is a finicky feeder, In general the moorish idol has a voracious appetite and oftern feeds on dried flake food within hours of being intoduced into an aquarium" He goes on to say that sometimes they dont feed for a couple of days and that sometimes they starve themselves to death but that he would not call these moorish idols "finicky eaters"
"in nature its diet consists of sponge, algae, tunicates, crustaceans, worms, clams, and other inverts" "it also feed to some extent on corals and anemones, dead fish and fruit that has fallen into the sea"
he goes on to say
" a good captive diet for the MI is basically a large volume of everything that it eats, normally it eats just about everything ifferedm but individual specimens do exhibit preferences"
"when I say large volume I intened to suffest that it be fed several times per day, the need to feed the MI so often is reduced if it is housed in a large aquarium with a heavy growth of algae and associated arganisms upon which it may graze"
"some items that are generally accepted by the MI include: flake food pellets, fresh seaweeds, dried seaweeds, earthworms, bloodworms, blackworms,brine shrimp, mysis, chopped shrimp clams , chopped squid, frozen peas, and bananas it is important to include a large portion of vegtable matter to its diet and dried seaweeds is the best way to accomplish this"
Ill give you a little on water quality
keep ates below 50 like any reef fish
keep SG stable but they can tolarate anywhere from .018-.030
"it is benificial then to use a night illumination on a refugium w/ algae or at least a surface skimming overflow to maintain adequate nightime oxygen levels"
Buying tips
"avoid specimens that have sunlen stomach area damage to the moth area as evidence by sores and any signs of cryptocaryon or amyloodinium" infestation
"the fish should not be shy and hiding but should instead be out front boldly swimming or pacing"
"newly imported specimens, stressed specimens and very small juveniles will have pale, washed out coloring"
"in larger specimens it is a good sign when the black areas are very balck and a bad sign when they are pale"
"this fish should be feed well and not be intimidated by the feeding of its tankmates"
Hope this helped a little at least now more people have a better understanding about this mysterious fish. :cheers:
Thats great to know, the Moorish idol that they had was $ 44. It is sad they kept him in a 10 GAL tank with a couple of other fish it probably was just stressed out.
