Took the plunge on a Moorish Idol

aherre07

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We'll one of my all time favorite fish has finally made it home with me. I was very fortunate to have found an idol that is eating anything and everything that I throw in the tank. From brine, mysis, NLS pellets to nori. Hope all goes well and continues to eat with gusto the way it is now. Here is a pic of him in the tank.
20180415_204829.jpg
 

AquaLifeStudio

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In my experience they require a ton of constant feedings and plenty of nori to graze on during the days. I recently, as of a month and a half ago, got one and added it to an established tank system where it has been happy enough ever since. Gaining the girth and keeping it that way is the trick. This fish needs a lot of attention. Good luck.
 
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aherre07

aherre07

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That's exactly the goal with this guy. I have 2 Nori clips in the tank and will make sure to keep the Nori stocked as often as possible, also have an Eheim fish feeder that feeds pellets twice a day and I feed frozen in the late evenings. I was a bit worried that the purple and yellow tangs would mess with him but the Idol has actually been left alone by all.
 

Ento-Reefer

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Masstick is also a great food. You can stick it in different spots on the glass or into small rocks and the fish can graze for a couple of hours. All of my fish love it, even my anthias.
 

AquaLifeStudio

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How's everybody's moorish idol doing? Mine has stopped eating pellets and has just been going crazy for nori (have added with selcon), spirulina flakes and a frozen combo of brine, mysis and Rods. He is still looking happy and is maintaining its girth.

I just recently found a frozen angel/butterfly food that includes sponge so I'm starting to feed that as well.

I'm looking forward to placing the idol in qt this next week and treat with prazi and cupramine before transferring to his 225 gallon home.
 
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aherre07

aherre07

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Here's my idol eating some new life spectrum pellets. Her goes crazy for them and I really enjoy watching him scoop them up off the sand bed. Very aggressive eater and has really become one of the leaders of the pack in my tank.
 

Mr. Limpid

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Love that fish, but all the horror stories I have read lead me to getting the Heniochus (poor mans moorish idol). All the luck to you to keep the guy going, looks good and he starting out good.
 
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aherre07

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Wanted to give an update on my idol, let me say that I have a hard time believing that these fish don't like to eat. Lol...on a serious note I waited and waited for several years to find an idol that I saw aggressively eat at my LFS and I am glad that I jumped all over this one the minute i saw this guy eating. Here is picture of him eating some nori.n

20180508_192109_001.jpg
 

Mr. Limpid

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Did you see this write up from Paul, in my thread? Very good information, hope it helps.

I have swam with these beauties 7 or 8 times in Hawaii (where they are the most common fish) and French Polynesia where they are also very common but not as much as Hawaii.
In much of Hawaii the reefs are bare and algae takes over much of it. It kind of looks like a gray, half dead algae but the Idols feast on this stuff as no other fish does.


In the rest of the South Pacific I have followed them many times and the reefs are much better there so Idols have other friends for company. There the Idols eat mostly a lime green sponge that I can't identify. As a matter of fact, that is all I saw them eat there. The male (I think) seems to find this sponge first and starts to eat it, then a few minutes later the "female" catches up to him and she eats while he goes off on another 100 yard circle of the reef looking for sponge.

I located a sponge in New York that grows on floating wooden docks at the surface and it is very easy to collect. It looks like giant human ears and is the same color. Like a light tan.
My last idol who lived almost 5 years would almost jump out of the water for it. I would collect it and freeze it as I couldn't keep it alive for more than a few days.

4FordFamily is correct, their metabolism must work very lousy and I believe that is because their food contains almost no nutrition which is why nothing else eats it.
I built a feeder which was a dish that sat on the bottom. There was a tube that went to the surface with a small funnel on top of it. Above that was an auto feeder which woud deposit fish oil soaked pellets into the funnel 6 or 7 times a day. A tiny bit of water was also pumped into the funnel and the pellets would go down into the dish where the Idol would wait for them. On every pass around the tank, he would inspect the dish.
His other meal was that sponge, clams, live worms and frozen banana. (yeah, I know!).
But after 5 years he just didn't seem to want to live any more and died which happens to many of them and we don't know why. My tank which is a 6' long 100 gallon tank seemed much to small for him so I may get another one soon as I am moving and will get a larger tank. I first have to see if I can collect that sponge in my new marina.
Now I "think" I can keep one. But if i don't keep it for at least 10 years, I will consider it a failure because if any fish dies before it's presumed lifespan, I consider it a failure.
This was Hawaii



This was Bora Bora in Tahiti,

 
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aherre07

aherre07

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Yes i did thank you. I had a question regarding the idol's streamer, how fast/slow is it supposed to grow back? Not sure how it happened but it seemed to have been broken/torn off. Not sure if it got caught in a pump as it swam by or what. Anyway it is growing back just fine, in fact it grew back in a very quick manner which is why i was curious about this because I was surprised that it was able to regrow his banner in such a short time frame.
 

Mr. Limpid

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They do grow back, it took my butterflies about a month. My trigger bit it. What do you have in your tank?
 
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aherre07

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tangs and pygmy angels nothing that I believe would be the culprit. the tangs and the idol tend to hangout at the veggie clip stations together the majority of the time.
 

AquaLifeStudio

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The streamers seem to grow quickly enough when the fish is "healthy" and break off from time to time due to some sort of contact. You just dont want to see that the skin area that surrounds the dorsal spine begin to erode away back towards the head.

The streamer on my own Idol seems to grow up to 3-4" off the spine before it gets nipped off by whatever is in the tank, and then repeats
 
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aherre07

aherre07

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I wanted to update this thread to say that this idol has become the KING of the nori station. He will not allow any of my tangs to graze off the same clip as him. Quite interesting to watch actually. The other fish must hover near or around the clip and eat the flakes of seaweed that come off as he eats. Mind you the fish don't seem to like the other 2 veggie clips in the tank. They seem to think that the nori on the idols clip is better...LOL
 

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I wanted to update this thread to say that this idol has become the KING of the nori station. He will not allow any of my tangs to graze off the same clip as him. Quite interesting to watch actually. The other fish must hover near or around the clip and eat the flakes of seaweed that come off as he eats. Mind you the fish don't seem to like the other 2 veggie clips in the tank. They seem to think that the nori on the idols clip is better...LOL
mine did the same thing. once it became settled in it was very aggressive at eating and chasing other fish away from the sea veggies. got fat from eating sea veggies and larrys reef service fish frenzy.
 

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