The Moorish Idol Thread

[ToonPack]

My Idol update.

Like you Zfunk, my Idol seemed to lose a little weight last week, may have been due to the fact that myself and my wife were away for a couple of days and feeding duties fell to my sons.

Anyway over the weekend started feeding a mix of Emerald Entrée and some Angelfish food which contains sponge and heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s still frighteningly greedy and he seems to have rounded out a little.

Weââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re feeding 3 times a day, a cube of Angelfish in the morning and another with a cube of the Emerald or brine shrimp early pm and some flake (a pinch) late pm. I am concerned I may be overfeeding my tank but my water is currently testing good, Nitrite, nitrates and Phosphates at zero, but Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll keep an eye on it. That said the food is gone in next to no time. (why are there no good guide notes on amounts to feed anywhere !!!!!)

His general demeanour is OK, heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s actually very assertive with his tankmates and my goby just tolerates him, although the presence of the Idol has turned the goby from a slow lazy eater into a ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œpiranhaââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ So much so when heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s finished his food ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œraceââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ with Idol heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s neglecting his sand sifting duties.

The Idolââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s a pretty intelligent/responsive fish too, I defrost the cube food in a plastic jug and if I have the jug in front of the tank at any time, heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll follow it/me.

My only major concern is he pesters my softies waaaay to much. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m going to try some Nori on a clip so hopefully if he likes that heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll pick there and leave the corals alone.

So far so good.

 

[Creetin]

I just added one to my tank. It has been in q for almost a month.
It is eating like a pig, and loves to pick at featherdusters. It is worse than my old copperband. Mine picks at the rocks and some zoa polyps. Not to the piont he is eating them more like searching for something, maybe sponge, or more dusters. I do have sponge in there to naw on if he/she wants. I believe its a she though, and it eats very well. I hope in this thread we all can learn something, and help these fish thrive in our tanks.
Also i have heard that the brazil MI are more heartier than its hawaiian counterpart. Is this correct?

 

[Creetin]

This is a shot of him today befor he went to the displat tank. (190)

 

[zfunk007]

Thanks for the updates and posts guys. Nice to hear that your Idols are doing well so far.

Creetin you most certainly went about it the right way. I should have quarantined mine like you did. He gets a few ich spots from time to time because I didn't. But he doesn't seem bothered by it. Other than that mine is doing pretty well, still eating and looking good.

Toonpack, my Idol will also "follow" me back and fourth when he thinks i'm about to feed him. They most certainly are intelligent and interesting fish. Lots of personality.

I was also concerned about water quality since I have been feeding my tank so much since I got this Idol. So I tested the water, but everything still checked out perfect. So thats good as well.

Also Toonpack, my Idol picked on almost all my corals when I first put him in. It's been over 2 weeks now and he doesn't bother anything anymore. I'm guessing cause he gets fed regularly plus there is some hair algae in certain parts of my tank that he goes to town on constantly.

Also, if im not mistaken Brazil does not border the Pacific Ocean. But I heard that Idols can be found all way to the west coast of South America, but im not sure. From my experience, the ones from Hawaii seem to do the best. They seemed the healthiest when they arrived at my LFS. They were full, rounded out, didn't look skinny like mine does. We should do some research on this.

Thanks for all the updates and questions guys. Keep them comming!

 

[Paul B]

I collected about a half a pound of local New York sponge today on the south shore of Long Island. It looks kind of ratty because it grows on pilings and I have to kind of scrape it off. It is thin like leather and orange. My Idol goes nuts over it and I give it to him every day with other things. All the fish like it but I only feed it to him. I don't really want to collect this stuff all the time. It does not live in a reef tank so I freeze it.
Paul

 

[zfunk007]

Looks alot like the orange sponge I find around here. Cept the stuff around here is more bright orange. And of course there is the blue sponge I managed to find, which i'm still feeding my Idol every other day. I also froze mine cause I had to scrape it off the rock and then take it out of the water so I figured I successfully killed it. He seems to like it alot.

Next week when I get a few days off i'm gonna go find some other types of sponge and try those as well. I figure the more variety of sponge he eats the better.

As of right now my Idol seems to be doing well, still looking a bit skinny but not to bad. He seems to have gained a little weight, but hes still on the skinny side. Hopefully he will fatten up.

 

[Paul B]

zfunk, mine looks real good except for his dorsal fin. He is fat and is without a doubt my best eater. I give him sponge every day. As I have always said though, a moorish Idol that eats good is no indication of longivity. These fish drop dead for no apparent reason. I had mine about a year but since most of my other fish live over ten years I am not too confident yet. The only difference with this one is that he gets "Selcon" every day along with fresh (or frozen) sponge. I have no way of telling if this sponge is good for him or if it is killing him. Also I have to go back to work on monday, I took off 9 weeks, now I will not be able to feed him as much as I would like. I am also worried that I have to do some traveling this week and it is supposed to be 94 degrees all weekend. I will not be able to cool the tank. We will see.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Creetin]

I feed mine zoe by kent, and garlic extreme soaked in angel and butterfly food with sponge. He loves it and really goes after it. Mine is finnaly starting to realize he gets fed when i am around and greets me now. I have read somewhere that they eat clams, and it wouldent surprise me because i see mine going after and attacking my nassasarus snails. He goes after them hard, you would think he eats them regularly because instantly when he sees them he is attacking them. Does anybody else experience this?
And he still picks at the rockwork, i have sponge everywhere he can pick at thanks to all the zoa colonys i have.

 

[zfunk007]

9 weeks off Paul? Must be nice . Creetin I think the Garlic Extreme makes a difference. Its what got my Idol eating to begin with. I treat his food with that and Selcon every feeding.

If anyone else has any other pics they want to post feel free. I'll post some more of mine in the next few days. He was looking really good yesterday. I really think hes starting to gain weight. Which makes me happy. Hes the most interesting fish in my tank and has the most personality. Everyone that comes over loves him. My fingers are crossed!

 

[Paul B]

I got a lot of pictures of them in the sea but I would have to scan them.
This is mine again.

 

[zfunk007]

Hey Paul, hope you don't mind me editing your picture. But I had to point this out:

I circled the horizontal line on your Moorish Idol. Same one as mine has. So I guess its normal then? This is something that had been bothering me, but i've noticed it more and more in the pictures people have been sending me of their Idols. So I guess its a pretty normal thing. I was concerned that maybe it was a sign of mal-nutrition or something.

Everyone that has an Idol, let me know if yours has this line.

 

[ManEatingGuppy]

just wondering, whats so hard about keeping idols again? there was some at my lfs and i asked them to feed them some black worms and they ate like pigs, the only thing is that their colors were all fading away so they were probly in poor conditions before they were in the store.

 

[zfunk007]

Well contrary to popular belief, getting them to eat doesn't seem to be the problem. The problem (from what we've been able to figure out in this forum) is "what" you feed them. You need to give them a varied diet including sponge (preferably live), enrich their food with vitamins and feed them multiple times a day if possible.

Something else that Paul B brought up is that in the wild they are almost always found in pairs. This may have something to do with the fact that they don't normally do well in captivity. Perhaps they need to be in a mated pair to survive long periods of time in captivity. If my Idol for some reason dies, my next attempt will be a mated pair.

Also they love to swim. They are like Tangs to the extreme. My Idol never stops moving, ever. Therefore you should have a very large tank to house one in. I think one of the main problems with people keeping them is that they are most commonly kept in tanks that are 200 gallons or less. Not that one can't live in a tank under 200 gallons but I think that the bigger the tank you have the greater your chances are of keeping one for along period of time.

I am no expert on Moorish Idols (although i'd like to become one). But this is what i've learned so far. Hope this somewhat answers your question. Anyone else feel free to chime in on anything I may have missed.

 

[Creetin]

I am interested in sexing them, I'd like a pair if i could get a new one in there. This one beat the living tar off of the other idol that was with him at the lfs they had to separate them otherwise i would have bought both.

 

[Paul B]

Zfunk, that line you circled is their backbone, it gets more prominent if they lose weight. How did you circle it?
As for sexing them thats easy but it may not do you any good, I am not sure just any pair will become a "mated" pair. I followed them for a week in Bora Bora and the male (I think) seems to lead the female around the reef with a lot of distance between them like 20 yards. The male finds food and when the female shows up he goes cruising again to a new spot. They travel a lot and are hard to keep up with. Maybe thats the reason some of them are hard to get to eat, they need to be led to food? Just a theory.
Here is a place in Bora Bora where I followed a lot of Idols.
I think thats my wife in the picture.
Paul

 

[zfunk007]

Bora Bora... I wish I was there hehe... Yes I figured that line was part of their skeleton. It's just that all the Moorish Idol's i've come across in captivity seem to have more prominent back bones, probably cause they are mal-nurished and not fed at the wholesalers.

My Idol is definitley gaining weight. He's also FINALLY eating spectrum pellets. So thankfully now I can feed him in the morning before I goto work when the lights are still off. Cause for a while there I was only able to feed him once a day. Possibly why he lost some weight.

All I did was take your picture and put it into MSPAINT circle the part I wanted, then re-uploaded and posted it. Took a whole of 5 minutes .

 

[zfunk007]

Hey all, got some updated pictures of my Idol. Over the past week he seems to have gained some weight, his back bone line is much less defined now, which makes me happy.

Heres a picture of him eating some spectrum pellets off the bottom. Hes finally eating them!!

Heres one of him cruisin the tank. Look how long his dorsal fin is getting!

Heres one of him and his fat belly. Like most Moorish Idols who eat, hes quite a hog.

Heres one of the Idol and one of my Fairy Wrasse

 

[Creetin]

Those are some nice pix guys! I'll try to get some soon. The streamer on yours is pretty cool. My idol has grown too since the pic a few days ago. They grow pretty fast.
The big eyes on these fish make me think they have great night vision. Mone hasnt accepted thera a pellets yet. I have heard of a great angel pellet that is pretty high in nutrients for angels, and is only sold on the west coast. I cant remember the name i have to ask my friend again because he orders it. Its in a bag if that helps any, But i'll post the name soon as i find out.

 

[zfunk007]

Well disaster struck this morning! Good old Florida Power and Light has struck again! Where I live (kind of out in the country) we get pretty frequent power outages. Usually at least once a day in the summer months. Usually its only for a second. This morning however we got a "brown out" I think you people from up north are probably more familiar with this term then us people who live in the sub-tropics.

At any rate I was jolted out of my sleep cause my main system pumps and all my power heads started rattling and screeching because they were only running at half speed. Then my sump backed up and spilled about 30-40 gallons of salt water all over my room. The power didn't come back either. So we got FPL (Florida Power and Light) to come out and look at it and apprently a power line had fallen in our yard and we were only getting half power. Ugh!!!!

We are still without power, I had to goto work cause I was already an hour late. I manged to get my 2 main system pumps working on a computer battery. Hopefully that will last until they fix it. I'm worried about my Idol because I know they can become asphyxiated very easily. He seemed ok before I left, although he'll be in the dark most of the day. I just hope my brother can handle keeping my tank in line till I get back, there is hardly any water left in the sump. The rest is on the floor in my room cause I didn't have time to clean it up!!! Ugh what a mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Paul B]

Zfunk, good luck. I have a generator I could lend you but it's a hell of a drive.
Paul