salt e
In Memoriam
i have scheduled an appointment with a Marine Bio. by the name of Dr. Staudamier working with Husbandry at the Long Beach Aquarium this past week. when i called and requested to speak with someone about the Idol they put me in front of him.
From what i was told he is one of the leading ppl in this area with detailed knowledge reguarding this fish captive and especially in the wild while in hawaii (8+ years). Please keep in mind that what you are about to read are only the Doctors POV's on the topic fish.During the conversation alot of questions were answered. my biggest concern was HOW CAN I KEEP THIS FISH ALIVE IN CAPTIVITY. these questions were answered along with concerns about diet and behavior as well... All of the Q: and A's: were done sitting by the shark pond outside where ALL the Moorish Idols are kept.... you read correct... kept with the sharks and rays in the touching pool being grabbed at by little kids with ketchup and chocolate covered fingers... they have also been kept outside in Shark Lagoon for years and succussfully been spawning among the sharks, rays, kids and ketchup...apparently this fish is easyer to keep alive then we have all thought... i will explain in a sec. I thought it might have been lack of swimming room that might be leading this fish to its unhappy demise....nope not exactly but it does help to keep him HAPPY as i found out ...
lets start with diet.
from what i understand the idols MAIN diet is LIVE Algae (the word LIVE was stressed during the conversation for a reason..will explain later)... the doctor belives that there are 2 different species of sponge ( i wont attempt to spell the species he uttered off) that the idol prefers but will also eat some others though not as nutritional, one is orange and the other is blue... some different types of corals as well as sea squirts and a few other things such as squid, shrimp this, that and the other. @ the aquarium they provide NONE of the diet listed except the live algae that grows powered by the sunlight. and the squid and shrimp offered to the Sharks and Rays. now get this... not even on occasion are the idols provided with any pellets or suppliments for the sponge. Nor are they provided with anything else that they prefer in the wild.
they have only lost ONE Idol withen the past 3 or 4 years housed there due to Shark attack during feeding. none have dropped dead in shark lagoon due to any unknown reasons, which most ppl w/ home aquariums experence. prior to being housed with the sharks OUTSIDE they were indoor for inside viewing. they did poor inside and the aquarium lost quite a few in search for the reason or answer in what was causing this fish to fail.
the reason i gather why this fish can live outside with a bunch of heavy waste producing sharks and rays rather then inside a CLEAN home aquarium is for the reason mentioned above...LIVE ALGAE... most of us run PhosGuard media and such to avoid algea issues / brakeouts. but if you want to successfully house this fish... to us it would be a dirty tank... to this fish it would be a garden of paradise. The LIVE algae helps the fishs ammune system as they can fall sick very easly from almost ANYTHING and seem to kick the bucket over night when just yesterday morning it was swimming around your 800+ gal tank eating Formula II frozen snacks in your UBER CLEAN AND CLEAR SPS SHOW TANK.
i explained to the doctor that, that might be near imposible then to keep alive at home if you like to view you fish at all... he said in short before a call from his son and leaving soon after...," What *I* would do is give him a nice size tank to swim in, and provide ample liverock with good growth, if the rock you have in your tank currently does not have much, at least once a month bring home a good size rock for the fish to feed off. Good Luck." the tank size was not a reason for the fish to fail... but it will keep him HAPPY... not ALIVE.
Im sure i haven't covered everything, and i dont feel overly confident about housing this fish still as of yet, since i dont much like an algae infested tank. but i do feel one step closer.
From what i was told he is one of the leading ppl in this area with detailed knowledge reguarding this fish captive and especially in the wild while in hawaii (8+ years). Please keep in mind that what you are about to read are only the Doctors POV's on the topic fish.During the conversation alot of questions were answered. my biggest concern was HOW CAN I KEEP THIS FISH ALIVE IN CAPTIVITY. these questions were answered along with concerns about diet and behavior as well... All of the Q: and A's: were done sitting by the shark pond outside where ALL the Moorish Idols are kept.... you read correct... kept with the sharks and rays in the touching pool being grabbed at by little kids with ketchup and chocolate covered fingers... they have also been kept outside in Shark Lagoon for years and succussfully been spawning among the sharks, rays, kids and ketchup...apparently this fish is easyer to keep alive then we have all thought... i will explain in a sec. I thought it might have been lack of swimming room that might be leading this fish to its unhappy demise....nope not exactly but it does help to keep him HAPPY as i found out ...
lets start with diet.
from what i understand the idols MAIN diet is LIVE Algae (the word LIVE was stressed during the conversation for a reason..will explain later)... the doctor belives that there are 2 different species of sponge ( i wont attempt to spell the species he uttered off) that the idol prefers but will also eat some others though not as nutritional, one is orange and the other is blue... some different types of corals as well as sea squirts and a few other things such as squid, shrimp this, that and the other. @ the aquarium they provide NONE of the diet listed except the live algae that grows powered by the sunlight. and the squid and shrimp offered to the Sharks and Rays. now get this... not even on occasion are the idols provided with any pellets or suppliments for the sponge. Nor are they provided with anything else that they prefer in the wild.
they have only lost ONE Idol withen the past 3 or 4 years housed there due to Shark attack during feeding. none have dropped dead in shark lagoon due to any unknown reasons, which most ppl w/ home aquariums experence. prior to being housed with the sharks OUTSIDE they were indoor for inside viewing. they did poor inside and the aquarium lost quite a few in search for the reason or answer in what was causing this fish to fail.
the reason i gather why this fish can live outside with a bunch of heavy waste producing sharks and rays rather then inside a CLEAN home aquarium is for the reason mentioned above...LIVE ALGAE... most of us run PhosGuard media and such to avoid algea issues / brakeouts. but if you want to successfully house this fish... to us it would be a dirty tank... to this fish it would be a garden of paradise. The LIVE algae helps the fishs ammune system as they can fall sick very easly from almost ANYTHING and seem to kick the bucket over night when just yesterday morning it was swimming around your 800+ gal tank eating Formula II frozen snacks in your UBER CLEAN AND CLEAR SPS SHOW TANK.
i explained to the doctor that, that might be near imposible then to keep alive at home if you like to view you fish at all... he said in short before a call from his son and leaving soon after...," What *I* would do is give him a nice size tank to swim in, and provide ample liverock with good growth, if the rock you have in your tank currently does not have much, at least once a month bring home a good size rock for the fish to feed off. Good Luck." the tank size was not a reason for the fish to fail... but it will keep him HAPPY... not ALIVE.
Im sure i haven't covered everything, and i dont feel overly confident about housing this fish still as of yet, since i dont much like an algae infested tank. but i do feel one step closer.
) maybe this Dr. has got something here?
i also have a bunch of pics from the display i will post in a few.