Moorish Idol success stories

[Terry Le]

Interesting, I got mine from him and he’s been with me for about a year. The guy is a model citizen and eats like a pig

That what I was hoping to get but the one I got was not healthy looking at all. Here in Cruces New Mexico there only Petco or I would make sure one is eating before purchase

 

[jgsolo32]

Trinhs fish and coral store in Kentucky is offering 3 tank raised Moorish Idols.

 

[wickedxreef]

I’m currently running mine through QT as we speak. Today he started eating nori from a clip. I was able to get him to initially eat by getting fresh black mussels from the local super market and splitting them in half. Now the minute they hit the bottom of the QT tank, he goes to town on them.

I was able to safely run mine through copper using copper power, so don’t be afraid to QT them. If you can’t get them to eat, use live food or mussels like I did.

 

[Terry Le]

Trinhs fish and coral store in Kentucky is offering 3 tank raised Moorish Idols.

Wow do you know if they ship?

 

[gavin2511]

Had this guy nearly two years

 

[William Chiavetta]

I have spent quite a bit of hours underwater with Idols in French Polynesia and Hawaii. In hawaii they are probably the most common fish there and you will find them where no other fish live.
In Hawaii, even the very outer Islands the reefs are in bad shape and most of the coral is dead. The Idols eat that dead and dying algae that only them and urchins will eat. I think I took these off of Lanai or Kauai





In Bora Bora in Tahiti the reefs are much better and the only thing I saw them eat here is a lime green sponge that I have not seen anywhere else.

This is Bora Bora.



Here one of them swims maybe 100 yard circles around the reef looking for that green sponge, they the other one comes by (female?) and she eats and the first one leaves to find more sponge.

I kept my last one just over 5 years feeding her sponge that grows here in New York in the summer at the surface of floating wooden docks. The Idol would practically jump out of the water for the disgusting stuff. I couldn't get it in the winter so I would collect a bunch of it and freeze it. As a matter of fact, the Idol only atre it if I froze it.

They also eat frozen bananas but not fresh ones. Maybe it looks or tastes like sponge, I have no idea.

I also fed it pellets that I infused with fish oil that I dispensed 3 or 4 times a day in a feeder I developed. That fish wouk spend much of her time waiting by the feeder to see if some pellets would come down.



This was probably 30 years ago when I was a lot stupider than I am now.
But I don't have my boat any longer and I can't collect that sponge so I will probably not get another one any time soon. Unless I find a place locally to get that sponge as they won't just eat any sponge.



I personally would not quarantine that fish as they are quirky and delicate enough but I won't quarantine any fish. But thats just me and you should do whatever you feel is best.

5 years with that fish is a failure because I think, but I am guessing that fish should live maybe 12 or 15 years but that is a wild guess and I am pretty sure no one has kept one "In a Home Tank" more than 8 or 10 years.

They are similar to butterflies but in their own classification. I think it's Zanclide or something like that. (I am to lazy to look it up)

I had the chance to see millions in the Galapagos and they were gorgeous

 

[William Chiavetta]

I’m a retired public aquarium curator, so I managed the tank but didn’t have to pay for it (grin).

LUCKY

 

[Ishy]

This is Winston. We've had him just over two years and he's about the size of my hand.

 

[littlefoxx]

When I get my whole tank situation under control and everyone transferred I want a trio of these! But Im nervous with all the rap about how hard they are. So Im debating if I want to do a trio of the banner fish that look close to idols instead.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Even if successful, this imagine for every MI tht makes it to market, several are dying along the way in the supply chain. Leave them in the ocean imo.

 

[Rp8]

When I get my whole tank situation under control and everyone transferred I want a trio of these! But Im nervous with all the rap about how hard they are. So Im debating if I want to do a trio of the banner fish that look close to idols instead.

We get the heniochus butterfly bc it’s similar lol

 

[littlefoxx]

We get the heniochus butterfly bc it’s similar lol

Exactly lol that would be the reason I got one and not an idol!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

This is my new guy in quarantine. Picked him up last night after watching him the past 2 weeks at one of my LFS. Currently chowing on mysis and nori, going to try pellets tonight.

 

[Terry Le]

Awsome

 

[Savage Henry]

I know people go on and on about not keeping tangs in a small tank (I’m guilty of keeping one in a theee footer), but I have some first hand experience with Moorish Idols in the wild. I have caught small tangs while snorkelling using those little hand net we use in our tanks. I also caught a Moorish Idol, which I released. Why did I release it, yet kept tangs in my tank? Because I had to chase that Moorish Idol for many many metres back and forth until I ambushed it. It would flee for some twenty metres or more at an instant. So, once I had caught, I thought that for a fish that in its natural habitat covers so much ground in one swim, I thought I am not putting that in a tank. I should say though, I have also come across a pair of wrasses about four inches each swimming figure-of-eights over an area of at least 30 foot by 30 foot. They each did complete circles coming together then going back out.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

So far so good! Eating pretty well on mysis, nori, and Caulerpa.

 

[Gudhjem]

On Wednesday it will be seven years that I've had my MI. He doesn't get any special food, but eats everything I feed the tank -- pellets, mysis, flakes, and especially loves nori.

 

[radiata]

On Wednesday it will be seven years that I've had my MI. He doesn't get any special food, but eats everything I feed the tank -- pellets, mysis, flakes, and especially loves nori.

Well done!

 

[EliMelly]

When I get my whole tank situation under control and everyone transferred I want a trio of these! But Im nervous with all the rap about how hard they are. So Im debating if I want to do a trio of the banner fish that look close to idols instead.

I’m debating the same thing

 

[PharmrJohn]

With idols, it mostly depends on their source, and then, what size tank you have. They are also really prone to ich, so they need to be fully quarantined, but they don't really handle small, bare quarantine tanks very well.

Avoid small idols from SE Asia. They often arrive thin and in very poor shape. When Hawaii was open to collection, that was a better source. I got a pair from Australia in 2015 that are still going strong in a huge tank (90,000 gallons).

90,000g?! Where on Earth is that baby!?