The Moorish Idol Thread

I bought mine just under a year ago on an impulse buy when I barely knew anything about them. The second I saw it in the store I fell in love with it. I had no idea how challenging they are to keep though. It didn't help that the guy working in the lfs told me they were extremely easy to take care of; "as easy as an angelfish" he said. Well... He was wrong. When I got home I put him in in my 75 non reef with live rock tank (he said that size would be fine.. Wrong again) that had a maroon clown, blue tang, flame angelfish, and hawkfish. It did not work well at all. The maroon clown, my first fish (who I had to give away because he killed every new fish I put in the tank) harassed the moorish idol until it was stuck in a top corner. Then my small blue tank went after its long fin and ripped up about half of it while the hawkfish pounded his stomach. I removed him immediately (all this happened after just 10 minutes of him being in the tank) and quickly got him into my 90 gallon reef tank. That tank had a small snowflake clownfish, a mandarin, a fire fish, and a fairy wrasse. They completely left him alone. He had a rough two weeks, but somehow managed to survive. He wouldn't eat but picked at the love rock a little bit. Then, about 2 weeks after the attack, he started eating brine shrimp like he had never eaten before. He ate 3 entire cubes of them in a minute. After that he ate everything. His injuries healed and his colors rebounded. I've been setting up a 150 reef tank for the last year and I just moved him into it now at its cycled enough. Now he's flourishing in the proper sized tank and is a stunning fish. It's a long story story sorry about that but yeah there's my moorish idol story
 
I added mine about 2 1/2 weeks ago and he finally started to eat nori after being in the tank for 2 weeks. Has been picking at my rock work but not too interested in the prepared foods yet. I added a powder brown at the same time and it has just now started eating also about the same time. Glad to see the idol eat hopefully it will start eating on my prepared foods.
Jeff
 
Fishmaster13 said:
I bought mine just under a year ago on an impulse buy when I barely knew anything about them. The second I saw it in the store I fell in love with it. I had no idea how challenging they are to keep though. It didn't help that the guy working in the lfs told me they were extremely easy to take care of; "as easy as an angelfish" he said. Well... He was wrong. When I got home I put him in in my 75 non reef with live rock tank (he said that size would be fine.. Wrong again) that had a maroon clown, blue tang, flame angelfish, and hawkfish. It did not work well at all. The maroon clown, my first fish (who I had to give away because he killed every new fish I put in the tank) harassed the moorish idol until it was stuck in a top corner. Then my small blue tank went after its long fin and ripped up about half of it while the hawkfish pounded his stomach. I removed him immediately (all this happened after just 10 minutes of him being in the tank) and quickly got him into my 90 gallon reef tank. That tank had a small snowflake clownfish, a mandarin, a fire fish, and a fairy wrasse. They completely left him alone. He had a rough two weeks, but somehow managed to survive. He wouldn't eat but picked at the love rock a little bit. Then, about 2 weeks after the attack, he started eating brine shrimp like he had never eaten before. He ate 3 entire cubes of them in a minute. After that he ate everything. His injuries healed and his colors rebounded. I've been setting up a 150 reef tank for the last year and I just moved him into it now at its cycled enough. Now he's flourishing in the proper sized tank and is a stunning fish. It's a long story story sorry about that but yeah there's my moorish idol story
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Looks like no more watching movies like the goodfellas or scarface around your fishies. Awesome story soo crazy. Really glad he pulled through though.
 
jjoos99 said:
I added mine about 2 1/2 weeks ago and he finally started to eat nori after being in the tank for 2 weeks. Has been picking at my rock work but not too interested in the prepared foods yet. I added a powder brown at the same time and it has just now started eating also about the same time. Glad to see the idol eat hopefully it will start eating on my prepared foods.
Jeff
Click to expand...
Good way I've gotten them to accept nori quick is by shredding it in the water with my finger tips and it ends up looking like flakes in the water.
 
Is a fox face, picasso trigger, lionfish, flame angel, clownfish, blue eye cardinal and diamond goby be compatible with a MI? local store has a couple that are eating and considering on buying one. had an MI a few years ago but lost it during a move and wanting to make a MI the main display fish.
 
My Idol was generally very compatible with most any fish I put in there. I had an Asfur Angel that bullied the Idol and a French Angel that out-competed it for food, so I removed them. Otherwise, tank mates have not been an issue.

With your list, the trigger and the foxface would be the ones I would worry about. The long fin is just begging to be nipped by other fish, which might happen with the trigger. The foxface may eat so much that the Idol can get thin and starve.
 
I have three weeks to have one and luckily eats everything flakes , pellets , nori , liquefied actually eat anything they eat. At the moment still he has not touched any coral and I hope it stays that way . I heard that if it is fed in abundance is less provable touch corals .
 
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I wanted to share what all my idol has been through and doing good. I bought it and a powder brown at the same time from a whole sale buy. I put them right into my display tank. I couldnt get either fish to eat for a good 2 weeks. They would pick at my rock work but wouldnt eat any of the foods I offered. Tried nori, mysis, brine, you name it. They would eat just alittle bit of the nori but not much. After 2 weeks most all of my fish now have ich. I didnt really notice it until I found one of my anthias dead. I bought a hospital tank and all the fish went right into hyposalinity. Still not eating. Yesterday after almost 2 weeks in hypo my idol went after the nori like it was candy. Today it is eating anything I am feeding the fish with. It has been almost one month for my idol to start to feed but it is eating great. I had my doubts if the fish was going to adapt to tank life but I now feel it will do great. Dont give up if yours isnt eating.
Jeff
 
I've had my idol in quarantine for about 4 days now and it is eating pellets, however it won't touch nori or frozen food. Ideally I'd like to try and get it onto frozen food as well before it goes into the display. I'm not convinced that it will get enough food if I just rely on it eating pellets from the autofeeder as there is 18 other fish in the tank that are quite aggressive eaters. Can anyone help me out with any advice?
 
Start off with feeding well soaked nori and mash it up between your fingers while feeding it. Mine did best with smaller pieces at first. Don't give up. Mine took a whole month to start eating. It wasn't interested in pellets at all. With yours eating pellets that is a good sign.
Jeff
 
kenpau said:
I've had my idol in quarantine for about 4 days now and it is eating pellets, however it won't touch nori or frozen food. Ideally I'd like to try and get it onto frozen food as well before it goes into the display. I'm not convinced that it will get enough food if I just rely on it eating pellets from the autofeeder as there is 18 other fish in the tank that are quite aggressive eaters. Can anyone help me out with any advice?
Click to expand...

Mine gets pellets only for the most part and I have had it for 6 1/2 years. Feed often as they don't seem to hold much at a time.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I actually put a powerhead in the QT and it seems to be eating more now. Once the pellets hit the bottom of the tank it's not interested but while they're suspended in the water it goes crazy for them.
The only problem I have now is trying to either get it on smaller pellets or get my Anthias and Chromis on the larger pellets as they're not the same type.
 
I have 2, and both had very different eating patterns to start. Both loved live oysters right away. Within a week, one would eat pellets and mysis. The other wouldn't touch it for almost 2 months. Nori for the first one within 3 weeks, 6 for the other. Now they both eat anything, including SPS and frag putty :) Food is not an issue with these fish :)
One settled, they are not all that timid and should hold their own, assuming they aren't going into a tank of triggers or something like that.
 
Well, after 7 months of getting along, my 2 MI had to be separated for fighting. Larger one pinned the smaller one in a corner and would go nuts if he came out. I kinda thought they would get along forever, but I guess not. Big guy is rehomed, and the little one is recovering well.
 
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