The Moorish Idol Thread
- Thread starter zfunk007
- Start date
Outerbank
New member
I had the MI in the QT for 9-10 days and partially treated with copper. I wanted to treat the fish as he came from my LFS and the fish are always sick at that store. After about a week he was eating well, looking good, but very skitterish in the 30 gallon QT. MIs will swim very fast and hit the glass ends of smaller tanks. As a result, I put him in the DT tank earlier than I like. This happened with both my MIs. I think the ideal QT for a MI might be 75 gallons. They would be less cramped in a larger QT.
roktsintst
New member
I have a 3" moorish idol coming Tuesday from divers den. She will be going into my 55 qt w a 2.5" scribbled angelfish. My question is how do idols do with cupramine and prazipro?
Outerbank
New member
Mine did ok with cupramine. IME, they can fight off small infestations fairly well if they are adapting, eating, and not overly stressed. If the fish looks good, I would recommend fattening the fish up (any way you can, ideally with a variety of foods) and then consider treating.
If anyone is in San Antonio, I saw a nice 3 inch MI at Alamo Aquatics (On Bandera) this weekend. They say it is eating. I didn't bother to verify since I have no room (I need a bigger tank), but I sure was tempted to buy and wanted to try pairing my idol. This fish was not skinny, so I feel it is likely eating. If anyone is in the San Antonio area and wants a good shot at a MI, then definitely check to see if this fish is still there.
mapleredta
Reef addict
Got my new king of the castle yesterday for my birthday! He's about 4" and eats pellets and frozen foods. He would blow the pellets off the sand bed into the water column and gobble them up. LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3wQ0w45NG4
I'll get a better video of him tonight!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3wQ0w45NG4
I'll get a better video of him tonight!!!!
jnc914
Active member
I have a Moorish Idol in my 55 QT that I got from Les at Wet Pets. Les QT'd and got it eating prior to shipping and it ate right out of the bag. After several days I did the Cumpramine/Prazi combo and he stopped eating immediately. After a couple of days of not eating I got spooked and ran carbon and did a large water change. The following day the fish was eating NLS Finnicky pellets and frozen PE Mysis. I think they fall into the category of fish that doesn't do well in copper. He has been eating since and I think I am going to transfer him to my DT, going against my typical 2 month QT period.
Outerbank
New member
Got my new king of the castle yesterday for my birthday! He's about 4" and eats pellets and frozen foods. He would blow the pellets off the sand bed into the water column and gobble them up. LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3wQ0w45NG4
I'll get a better video of him tonight!!!!
Hard to tell in the video, but he appears to be eating very aggressively out of the water column. I love seeing the little guys attack food!
It is also a good sign that he is blowing on the sand and then eating. This is one reason I like tiny pieces of scallops when I first feed. The small pieces of scallops stay together on the bottom and the MI will blow them while they are on the bottom and then eat the pieces.
mapleredta
Reef addict
Yes, I apologize for the video. I was so nervous, I couldn't keep steady plus the video was recorded from my env2 phone.:lolspin:
cthetoy
Active member
Prazipro is the most likely culprit and not Cupramine to make a fish stop eating. I had similiar results with Prazipro. I have yet to find out why some fish do well with Prazipro and some do not tolerate it so well. I now start with half dosage of Prazipro the first day and if the fish eats the next day I add the 2nd half.
jnc914
Active member
Yeah, I started to do half dosage of Prazi with some of my previous smaller angels as I was getting the same result; where the fish would adruptly stop eating when the medicine was first introduced and then soon after I removed it with carbon and water change, they would start to eat again within hours.
mapleredta
Reef addict
Here is a few videos that are MUCH better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qN1eji_gGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJJ9B8XS-w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhJ_Sw2KGWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qN1eji_gGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJJ9B8XS-w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhJ_Sw2KGWc
mapleredta
Reef addict
Thanks Scott. He has a little white spot on one of his bottom front fin. And for the life of me, can't tell if it's ick or just a piece of the fin. He has no other spots. I would have noticed them by now with all the time I spend in front of the tank.
Outerbank
New member
Keep an eye on the spot and keep feeding. It will learn to continually feed on nori.
rgonzalez
New member
Mine gets a little white spot (ich is my guess) for a few days on his front right fin. Then it goes away. Then it comes back a month later. As long as he is eating and active I don't worry about it.
mapleredta
Reef addict
Hmmm.... My order came in today for his new food. O.N. angel formula. Hopefully he will take to that since it has sponge in it. *cross fingers*
Just thought I would post some pics of my Moorish Idol, in its nighttime colors.
Here is what it normally looks like:
And here are the nighttime colors:
Sorry about the pic quality. But I think it is interesting how the colors change at night (as they do for most fish)
Some history on my Idol, for those that are interested:
I ordered three Idols through a friend, thinking they may do better in a group, when I was setting up my 240 gallon tank. When they came in (Jan 22, 2009), my tank was not ready yet, so my friend held them in a sump of one of his tanks for about a month or two.
Well, being in a small area in a sump, two of the Idols ganged up on the other and picked on it til it died. Then the other two battled til there was only one left. So I have that one, I never took possession of the other 2 (or even saw them, the above pic was sent to me from my friend). I don't know if they would have been OK if they went into the 240 rather than in the close quarters of a sump, but I suspect they may have done better.
At any rate, I have had this one in my tank since March 2009, so about 18 months now. I really love this fish, it is always swimming around, always looking out into the room and watching everything that goes on. It eats well, and I feed it mostly pellets, but also frozen foods including mysis and Rods food. Early on, it stopped eating for a day or two a couple of times, but I was always able to get it eating again with Rods food. However, the last 14 months, feeding has not been an issue. It is really a wimpy fish with no real defenses that I can see, so you can't keep it with anything aggressive. I have it with an Asfur Angel, a Yellow Coris Wrasse, a rabbitfish, a Blue Devil, an Indian Trigger, a Majestic Angel, a Purple Tang, an Achilles tang, and a scooter blenny. The Asfur Angel chases the Moorish Idol unmercifully, but the Idol just takes it in stride. Another thing is the Moorish Idol has developed a taste for zoas and palys, and has pretty much wiped out all my zoas and palys. Otherwise, it has not bothered any of my other corals.
Another thing that I think I should mention with the Moorish Idol is that it doesn't seem to eat a lot all at one time. I think it does best if you feed it a little but often. Once it settles into tank life for a while, you can get by with feeding it a little less often, but I still think its capacity for storing food in its stomach is limited and it needs to basically eat all day.
Also, it came down with a mild case of ich a few months ago, but it went away on its own. It never stopped eating the whole time.
Another interesting observation. For a very long time, my tank was infested with byropsis. It was actually a source of snack food for the Idol. Then I got rid of the byropsis with Tech M. So after the byropsis was gone, the Idol seemed to become less healthy. It's pennant became very short, and it had some black areas on its dorsal fin that weren't there before, and it became a little skinnier. I began feeding lots of Nori and Seaweed (I get it in the sushi section of the store) and the Idol seems to have improved. The pennant has grown back to a good length, and it overall looks a lot better. It is still a little skinnier than I would like, but I believe that is because I have a rabbitfish that has really grown, along with his appetite. The Idol has always been a somewhat timid fish, and the rabbitfish is very bold and quick when feeding, and I believe the rabbitfish gets so much food that the Idol gets left out to some extent. (I am trying to catch the rabbitfish to remove him, but have not been able to catch it).
So, to-date I am extremely happy with this fish, it has been great. I hope it continues to thrive as it has so far. I don't want to recommend it for everyone to go get one, but it has really far exceeded my expectations so far. By the way, I have been keeping saltwater fish for over 35 years now, so don't think I am some newbee guy recklessly trying my hand at such a difficult fish...
Here is what it normally looks like:
And here are the nighttime colors:
Sorry about the pic quality. But I think it is interesting how the colors change at night (as they do for most fish)
Some history on my Idol, for those that are interested:
I ordered three Idols through a friend, thinking they may do better in a group, when I was setting up my 240 gallon tank. When they came in (Jan 22, 2009), my tank was not ready yet, so my friend held them in a sump of one of his tanks for about a month or two.
Well, being in a small area in a sump, two of the Idols ganged up on the other and picked on it til it died. Then the other two battled til there was only one left. So I have that one, I never took possession of the other 2 (or even saw them, the above pic was sent to me from my friend). I don't know if they would have been OK if they went into the 240 rather than in the close quarters of a sump, but I suspect they may have done better.
At any rate, I have had this one in my tank since March 2009, so about 18 months now. I really love this fish, it is always swimming around, always looking out into the room and watching everything that goes on. It eats well, and I feed it mostly pellets, but also frozen foods including mysis and Rods food. Early on, it stopped eating for a day or two a couple of times, but I was always able to get it eating again with Rods food. However, the last 14 months, feeding has not been an issue. It is really a wimpy fish with no real defenses that I can see, so you can't keep it with anything aggressive. I have it with an Asfur Angel, a Yellow Coris Wrasse, a rabbitfish, a Blue Devil, an Indian Trigger, a Majestic Angel, a Purple Tang, an Achilles tang, and a scooter blenny. The Asfur Angel chases the Moorish Idol unmercifully, but the Idol just takes it in stride. Another thing is the Moorish Idol has developed a taste for zoas and palys, and has pretty much wiped out all my zoas and palys. Otherwise, it has not bothered any of my other corals.
Another thing that I think I should mention with the Moorish Idol is that it doesn't seem to eat a lot all at one time. I think it does best if you feed it a little but often. Once it settles into tank life for a while, you can get by with feeding it a little less often, but I still think its capacity for storing food in its stomach is limited and it needs to basically eat all day.
Also, it came down with a mild case of ich a few months ago, but it went away on its own. It never stopped eating the whole time.
Another interesting observation. For a very long time, my tank was infested with byropsis. It was actually a source of snack food for the Idol. Then I got rid of the byropsis with Tech M. So after the byropsis was gone, the Idol seemed to become less healthy. It's pennant became very short, and it had some black areas on its dorsal fin that weren't there before, and it became a little skinnier. I began feeding lots of Nori and Seaweed (I get it in the sushi section of the store) and the Idol seems to have improved. The pennant has grown back to a good length, and it overall looks a lot better. It is still a little skinnier than I would like, but I believe that is because I have a rabbitfish that has really grown, along with his appetite. The Idol has always been a somewhat timid fish, and the rabbitfish is very bold and quick when feeding, and I believe the rabbitfish gets so much food that the Idol gets left out to some extent. (I am trying to catch the rabbitfish to remove him, but have not been able to catch it).
So, to-date I am extremely happy with this fish, it has been great. I hope it continues to thrive as it has so far. I don't want to recommend it for everyone to go get one, but it has really far exceeded my expectations so far. By the way, I have been keeping saltwater fish for over 35 years now, so don't think I am some newbee guy recklessly trying my hand at such a difficult fish...
[URL="[IMG]http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee490/docsky/coral/IMG_0276.jpg[/IMG]"]
[/URL]size.
here some pics of mine i have had him about 2.5 years. Got him when he was a small adultSimilar threads
