Moorish Idol

[hammy]

Hi guys,

for the first time in my life, i couldnt resist the moorish idol and buy one. however at the same time i know it is a difficult fish due to the feeding habit. pls share your success if u have a moorish idol that can eat.

so far i have try mysis with garlic, ocean nuitrition formulae 2. no success. it is a very fat fish from iwarna, and i really wanna try my best to keep it alive.

[ReDDeviLs]

tried afew times, below r my experinces.

1st few piece die cos not feeding,

later on those tat r feeding as below,

1st piece from ML feeding on ML frozen food, got whack by tangs and tio ick.. died after awk or so.

2nd piece still from ML feeding on frozen food as well, after 2-3wks die.. for no reason

3rd piece from JR, feeding on pellets.. no big fish that whack it.. then few days later feed on my starpolyp ( was fast on the coral) took the starpolyp out and feed it pellets as usual. However after 2-3wks died.

so believe that it lack of something from the diet and died.

[yikai]

Had a moorish idol that survived for a month...and it just died mysteriously. I think something in the diet that we cannot replicate. They eat sponges and corraline algae from what i heard O.o

[jyoon]

Tried a couple of times and all failed.

Read from many books that Moorish Idol is not a fish to keep in home aquarium. It does not survive long.

[hammy]

sigh ... such beautiful fish but unable to keep up with it's diet. So far, no fishes are attacking him, he is fat and swim very boldly. but the only problem, he is not feeding. from iwarna recent shipment.

[yikai]

sigh ... such beautiful fish but unable to keep up with it's diet. So far, no fishes are attacking him, he is fat and swim very boldly. but the only problem, he is not feeding. from iwarna recent shipment.

Not feeding and u still buy?? Hope it starts feeding soon. Moorish idol have high metabolic rates. consume energy very fast. If it doesnt eat soon, u will see it start to get skinny and colours will fade... then ultimately die Jiayou!! Hope u can make it eat fast fast

[johntanjm]

hey but if u go Jrh Marine's shop, he has so many moorish, been swimming there for long long time. what's his magic?

[yikai]

hey but if u go Jrh Marine's shop, he has so many moorish, been swimming there for long long time. what's his magic?

They feed the MI pellet. If the MI eat pellet. the chances of survival is much much higher. The MI will grow fat. But i dunno if it will last in the long run. Maybe in a few months to a year, the MI will still not get its nutrition, and MAY die. i dunno. But i know MI are dam hard.

[mopiko]

think the character of the fish is important too. must be able to fight and chiong for food when see it higher chances of survival tis way.

[markietan]

ever got a specimen from Jrh marine stall before. fed it and made sure it was eating the pellet before i bought it. still remember it was only $12

come home kena wack big time by my yellow tang which is about same size, but after a few days they stop fighting and were friendly to each other. however you can see that its filament like dorsal fin was gone...

on one of the more famous online site, people suggested feeding it new life spectrum pellets. i did that and in no time the MI springed back to good health. the filament grew back to about 6 to 7 inches long... real beauty

then i got a power brown from another reefer, thinking it was already quarantined and dumped it into the FOWLR system. in no time the MI (and the powder brown) caught ich and died. I managed to keep it healthy for about 2 months... if it hadn't gotten ich, i was quite sure it would have lasted longer.

MI are really pretty... but i think its probably best if we left them in the wild. been diving around the region quite abit and the MI i see are always big and fat and loving. don't think they are in danger of going extinct yet but still... heh

good luck!

[Gouldian]

Hi guys,

for the first time in my life, i couldnt resist the moorish idol and buy one. however at the same time i know it is a difficult fish due to the feeding habit. pls share your success if u have a moorish idol that can eat.

so far i have try mysis with garlic, ocean nuitrition formulae 2. no success. it is a very fat fish from iwarna, and i really wanna try my best to keep it alive.

Hi Jack,

I have kept one for almost 2 years and have to sell it during one of my last re-scape.

IMHO, find a healthy and feeding specimen; ensure no similar looking fishes in your tank and provide a varied diet is the key to keeping them.

Like most reef fishes, MI will be territorial once establish thus you should avoid adding similar looking fishes after your MI as well.

Also, I personally will keep MI in FOWLR as I do not find them completely reef-save.

HTH

[Gouldian]

Another think to add is that like some literature; I believe sponges are a key to MI survival too. They will use their long snout to peck on sponges growing within the LR thus it is good to have some established LRs.

Happy Reefing