Moorish Idols, real experience??

[BCOrchidGuy]

Does anyone have real experience with these fish, how difficult did you find them, how large did you find they got, fav foods etc??? Would a 155 gallon be large enough for one...

Doug

[EmilyB]

Basically all I would say is you can't do it Doug. Call me crazy. :rolleyes:

Sam??

I only have three months experience in a 230g with an Idol in captivity for about two years.

I feed continually, have a Euroreef skimmer I empty often, and water change large amounts.

Let's see, they eat spirulina flake, tabs, pellets, sheets of nori, mysis, homemade food....

[BCOrchidGuy]

Emily, I know they are difficult to keep.... but wow, beautiful.. the LFS just got 3 in about 3-4 inches tall... $22 each.. gosh.. I just don't want to buy a fish that I'm going to kill, but at the same time I know someone is going to try putting them in a 30 gallon reef.... arrggggg.... they are beautiful.. wow...I wonder if they'd do better if they grow into a tank.

Doug

[EmilyB]

Well given you know they eat continually and you feel you can deal with that......good luck and make sure you have super oxygenation

[UnderWorldAquatics]

Taken from a previous thread, this is what I have done to keep them and it has worked great for me.

Ive only had one Morish Idol die on me out of about 15 I have gotten in, and it didnt ship very well, died in a day... Get your blender out and mix up some clams, mussles, squid, spirilina, nori, mysis, and any other stinky fish food you can find, blend it till its mushy with some chunks, get out some dry small pieces of base rock around the size of your fist, and smear the stinky crap all over 1 side of the base rock, now you dry it in the oven with the oven on really low, once dry, put various food rocks in freezer bags and throw them in the freezr. After your morish idol has been in the tank for a day, drop one of the food rocks in and they usually go to town in a short time. If they still dont seem to be eating enough, I usually pull them out of the tank and put them in a water tray, similar to a baking pan, and I put a plastic syringe down their throat and pump them full of yogurt, mysis, and appetite stimulant, once Ive done that, I have never had another problem with one... After all that has been done, they get used to normal feeding procedures.

In addition to this I have had good success with feeding hikari mega marine angel, and mega marine algae

[reefer_11]

Emily, I know they are difficult to keep.... but wow, beautiful.. the LFS just got 3 in about 3-4 inches tall... $22 each.. gosh.. I just don't want to buy a fish that I'm going to kill, but at the same time I know someone is going to try putting them in a 30 gallon reef.... arrggggg.... they are beautiful.. wow...I wonder if they'd do better if they grow into a tank.

Doug


hmm more dead Idols... Nice to see we place our own satisfaction above the life of the animals in our care..


These fish belong in the Ocean.. SamW's was an exception.. Don't count it as the norm..

ie.. let them die in the stores tank. So they won't bring anymore in. Tho I guarantee someone not knowing will buy them. Or someone knowing will buy them and think they are above the inevitable.

[sumpfinfishe]

Here, Here :exclaim:
I agree with reefer_11
Sam's or now Deb's "Moo" I think is an exception, some fish simply remain in our natural oceans and not our man-made ones.

Other than Kyles stats, I would wonder how many Morish and Angels for that matter don't make it :confused:

[Van down by the river]

I agree with reefer 11 too, I've seen these tried by many people, even in a 300 gallon reef and apart from Sam's I've not seen any survive longer than a few months(With the exception of public aquariums).

Hey Kyle maybe you can post a picture of all these Moorish Idols for us to see?

[StirCrazy]

Doug, leave them at the store and save the 22 bucks for other things. Sam's wasn't the exception, it was the luckey one (there will always be lucky fish that for some reason survive) and it isn't because of any meracoulous fish keeping seacret but just because you got lucky.

Steve

[Aquattro]

Ya, I agree with Darren also.

[naesco]

When they die in the LFS tanks instead of ours, the LFS will get the message and not get them in anymore.
Best left in the ocean.

[Samw]

Well, I just have to disagree. They are difficult yes, impossible no. I do see myself keeping more in the future when I get a bigger tank. They die more easily than other fish but its not diet related. They do go into shock very easily if you leave them out of the water too long (like mine did when I took it out of the water for over 2 minutes) and they will die if you don't aerate the tank (such as mine almost did when I unplugged my skimmer). The common theme has been oxygen deprivation. This explains why they don't ship well.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Well as I said, I don't want to buy a fish just to see it die, and I appreciate everyones comments. Sam, thank you as well for your input, I appreciate it.

Doug

[UnderWorldAquatics]

I would have to agree with the need for high orp levels, they need to get shipped well, my shipper packs them in a bag large enough for a big naso or angel, not much water, lots of oxygen! In my opinion it is not so much luck, as it is proper shipping techniques for that individual fish, large bag, little water, lots of oxygen, black bag or newspaper wraped around it to keep the light out, and a small dosage of sedative to keep them calm. They are just like other animals, you can have a dog that jumps right in the car and looks around outside just thrilled to be going for a ride, another dog will be barking whining, peeing, and craping everywhere, getting so excited it may have a heart attack. The same goes with fish, some stress alot more than others. Yes I do agree with everyone that they are more touchy then alot of other fish, I only get them from a particular individual, because he packs them to my likeing and I have good shipping success that way. Then the matter about food, I try to get fresh fish, fish that havent been starved in holding tanks for sometimes weeks before shipping, once starved, fish are very hard to get eating. I know that they are not as receptive to prepared food as other fish, but I dont think it is too hard, it just takes some time and effort, refering to my methods mentioned in above post.... And about angels, alot of people tell me about how many angels they have had die on them, so they no longer will buy angels, then I ask them what they were feeding....its not too hard to figure out why most angels and other fish with special diets die. I find angels very easy to get eating, I have only had to force feed 2 in the last 2 years or so. I strongly recommend fresh frozen mysis and pacific plankton, as well as Hikari Mega Marine Angel. Sure I agree that some fish are touchy, but I feel if a hobbiest has some knowledge and time and dedication they are willing to put into a spectacular fish, go for it, I have even had good success with butterflys that were not ordered but they showed up anyway, coral eaters, some did die, but alot lived and are in display tanks eating prepared foods, I wouldnt recommend said butterflys though, I only got them by accident.

[Quinn]

Just out of interest, what kind of sedative would one use on a fish?

[Aquattro]

Just out of interest, what kind of sedative would one use on a fish?

I would guess rum. :razz:

[UnderWorldAquatics]

I have cleaned up after a "high roller" house party, rum puts them to sleep forever....

I use Tricaine-S
Its even FDA approved

[BCOrchidGuy]

Tricaine is also know as MS222, a common tranquilizer used for shipping and handling. For shipping a dose of 10mg/L of water and for anesthetizing fish for handling 50-100mg/L. One more sedative that's used is Quinaldine sulfate but it's very hard on fish so it's not recommended, (only reason I mention it is if you run into it avoid it, it's not the same as Tricaine).

Doug

[UnderWorldAquatics]

Good point Doug, Tricaine-S or Tricaine Methanesulfonate, is basically a high grade version of MS-222, Tricaine-S is FDA approved and MS-222 is not. Im pretty sure thats right...lol