Moorish Idol

[DeepSeaIllusions]

I have done some more research and there are people that have the Idols for over 5 years. Which is not bad for a fish that doesn't do well in captivity....

 

[johnnymu]

Wasn't that one of the fish hawaii banned the collection of?

I believe the laws are only for certain parts of hawaii.

 

[DeepSeaIllusions]

Was there already a ban on certain sizes? I used to work for one the largest marine fish wholesalers of Europe. Tropical Marine Center, and they never had nice small once always large mediums to large Idols. Which makes me wonder if they had a ban on those small once.

 

[Eienna]

Most game fish in the USA have size requirements to be legal...I don't know if that applies to capturing aquarium fish or not. It seems to me that it's likely the juvies simply were not collected because they didn't last long enough to sell. That's only a guess, though.

 

[Velodog2]

I had one for a year and a half. It ate nls pellets from my fingers and was the most personable fish I've ever kept. However one day it lost its appetite and 4 days later was dead. I was gutted. It was in a 135 full reef and didn't cause any significant damage. I had begun traveling more for work and slacked off a little on water changes, although no corals had shown signs of decline. Don't know if that had anything to do with its demise. I lost interest in my tank for quite a while after that.

 

[landshark777]

Less than 10% survival rate,If they make it to a couple of months that would be a miracle.Once they stop eating they wont eat again.I read of a guy that had 30 years of experience in this hobby and 8 out of 8 of his died.

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Less than 10% survival rate,If they make it to a couple of months that would be a miracle.Once they stop eating they wont eat again.I read of a guy that had 30 years of experience in this hobby and 8 out of 8 of his died.

There is a lot of research that says this species possibly becomes deficient in a specific amino acid which food makers have been unable to reproduce in a prepared food. I can't put my finger on where I read that but we looked into it last year for about a month as a project food. Many elixirs have come out and some foods are starting to have sponge listed as an ingredient, but the sponge nutritional value appears to drop dramatically when processed/frozen.

I have not had a MI personally, however based on the amounts of requests I receive to "Make a food to help MI live longer" I would suspect most of what I have read is true. It seems those that do eat, fare well for 12-18 months and then suddenly start to go down hill.

Here is an interesting article that shed light on this difficult species:

Still Impossible After All These Years: Keeping Moorish Idols | Details | Articles | TFH Magazine®

Good luck and document everything you do so others can learn what works and what doesn't if you decide to get one.

Larry

 

[sqcube4me]

i have one .. had her about 6 months now and every morning i wake up i pray she is still swimming .. they are very hard to keep but once you get them eating its all down hill from there .. when i got mine i would take food clips and place them all over the tank with some sponge on it so if she was hungry she would pick at it ..

 

[Nvizn]

I have two that have been in QT, for over 30 days, now. Here's a video. Check them out!

[video=youtube;uhLI5XyRwIY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhLI5XyRwIY[/video]

[video=youtube;uhLI5XyRwIY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3txSlez5MQ[/video]

 

[docsky729]

I have had mine since 2007. I got him when he was pretty small which i think is key. Mine will eat smaller zoo's and acans but will leave everything else alone in my reef. Mine is a pig, he will eat any food i pit in the tank but the main foods are sheets of algae and NLS pellets. Only fish i have seen him mess with are Copperband butterfly's he tends to pick on them. No fish really mess with him at all.

I think another key point is to feed feed feed. My idol easy eats more than any other fish in the tank.
i first started to get mine to eat by hiding NLF pellets in supermarket clams that i would open and put in the tank. I kinda tricked him on to them. he would eat some as he was nipping at the clam.

 

[docsky729]

here are some recent photos

 

[jasonc1]

Still harder to keep. I've found success by obviously getting a healthy specimen but also having a fish feeder with pellets to compliment the normal daily frozen feedings. Re: pairs, everything I read indicates it's hit and miss. I recently had a pair and they chased each other around for 3 entire days before I had to bring one back to the LFS. It was a brawl 24/7 btwn those 2. Good luck!

 

[DeepSeaIllusions]

Wow guys thank you so much for the video's and pictures. Please keep them coming as it's really nice to see these beautiful fish in your DT's.
What about tank mates? Are there any fish that they can absolutely not be around?

 

[tyler1503]

Because of the trouble of keeping moorish idols in captivity, would a longfin bannerfish be a suitable substitute? They have a long streamer and similar colours and markings. Granted, they don't look the exact same, but it's worth looking into

 

[Velodog2]

Oh man those pics take me back! I had crazy flow in my reef with a huge closed loop plus full Tunze. The idol would constantly navigate the currents spinning and turning like a crazed fighter pilot with his plane turned sideways.

The "12-18 month" survival period was certainly accurate in my case. I don't want to encourage pple to try them, but no other fish I've kept came close to its sheer amazazingness.

 

[DeepSeaIllusions]

I know that there to versions of the banner fish. One is reef safe and one is not.
When we were selling them at the wholesaler we discovered that.

 

[PaulKreider]

I would vote against It, I've read only one person was able to keep a MI for 5+ years. Other than that most die rather quickly, I believe this species is better suited for large public aquariums and such. If the survival rate Is under 10% why even attempt it. You' just be risking its life and causing more demand for them to be collected.

 

[DeepSeaIllusions]

But then again you could say why not buy it, because a person like me would try and looking after it in the best way possible. It's already captured and it could go to someone that is not going to try as hard as I would.

 

[DeepSeaIllusions]

What we need to understand is that they will keep catching them. Until governments will put a cap to control this. We need to hope that more people like us are buying these fish instead of people that won't take the proper care.

 

[Mrhaglund]

I think sponges is an important part of their diet! I had one for 6-8 months from Hawaii back in 2008. It ate like a pig and seemed healthy as a horse and just up and died one night. Puzzled and seeking answers, The best one was lack of sponges .He was a big one too, around 5 inches long and around 7 inches high! I was not aware they picked on Corals though?? I think that's just a sign that they really hungry! Today we have really good food products like Brightwell Aquatics Angelixir which is a food soak fo spongivors. They are beautiful fish and probably my favorite look at. I want to try them again one day.

My biggest concern is you said for your client. Do you service aquariums? Probably not the best choice of fish for a client unless all they do is sit at home and feed their fish. They are a long ways from being hardy enough for maintenance account! Let your client know that the best aquarist in the world have a hard time keeping this fish alive when they get to see it on a daily basis! Tell him/heryou want to save them some money going and to pick out a different fish for their aquarium.