The Moorish Idol Thread

[sTefaniA]

our idol has a taste for acro corals
it's actually my boyfriends idol, i told him not to get one but he really wanted one
now it is (offcourse) pecking at every coral, very agressive fish
we had no problem adjusting him to the tank and he eats any food we give him
he is fed at least 5-6 times a day with mysis, artemia, fresh banana, nori, garlic, fresh seaweed, 4 types of flakes and vitamins.
we are upgrading to a 500 gallon tank but we are not sure about taking the idol with us
we have it now and i don't want anyone else to treat it badly
in fact we first had two, since they live in pairs in the wild
that worked for a day till one tried killing the other

first day:

i would love to take him with us in our new tank, there will be no tangs or angelfish, just small wrasses and some anthias
a friend had his idol for 7 years i think, untill his sea cucumber got sucked in his pump and killed everything in the tank
oh and his streamer grows about 3inch per week, he loses it and it grows back in a few days

 

[Tracey2]

He is gorgeous. You are setting up a 500g and only going to have wrasses and anthias??

I am setting up a 270g and was considering only a regal angel, 2 idols and anthias and wrasses.

 

[sTefaniA]

yeah there will be a few larger fish, such as our blonde naso
we are thinking about an achilles tang and maybe a powder blue
personally i would love an acanthurus olivaceus and a acanthurus pyroferus but i dont think we will get those
this will be an sps tank and we really want smaller fish such as flasher wrasses, anthias, blennies, gobies, maybe some sand eels
maybe one angel, i love regals too
still thinking about the idol...
we will probably sell this one and get a pair for the 500 gallon
our lfs had a stunning mated pair recently
not just two idols put together, you could see they were a real couple, didnt leave each other side, very peaceful

 

[Tracey2]

That sounds like it will be an amazing tank, I love both of those tangs as well and a moorish mated pair would be beautiful.

 

[sTefaniA]

here he is now
fatter and happier, enjoys munching off our corals
he will probably be gone this weekend since he ate a yellow acro yesterday

 

[Tracey2]

I have a 150g he would look great in, I could trade you for an orange should tang if you were close enough?

 

[silverfly]

here he is now
fatter and happier, enjoys munching off our corals
he will probably be gone this weekend since he ate a yellow acro yesterday

nice tank you have there.

Good luck tracey if you go for it!

 

[sTefaniA]

I have a 150g he would look great in, I could trade you for an orange should tang if you were close enough?

i'm sorry i live on the other side of the planet :sad2:
i live in belgium, europe

 

[Tracey2]

Its just a short plane ride:fun2:

I can't wait to see your mated pair, keep us posted.

 

[sTefaniA]

i will, but you will have to wait a few months :lol:
we like loooong cycling

 

[The Reef Expert]

Does anyone know if moorish idol pairs are available in the US?

 

[ShellsSD]

Here is my guy. His streamer just keep growing and growing. Only had him a few months and the LFS had him a few months before that. I put in an auto feeder and he eats great 5 times a day. We will see how he does.

 

[Outerbank]

Shelly, your MI looks great!! An 5 times a day auto feeder is not a bad idea.

 

[ShellsSD]

4 times a day the tank gets pellets, from the auto feeder, and then one time a day I feed the tank frozen foods of different sorts.

 

[DDRR]

Do Moorish Idols eat Cleaner Shrimp housed in the same tank?

 

[Paul B]

Do Moorish Idols eat Cleaner Shrimp housed in the same tank?

No, they don't

 

[SMOOTHIE]

Do Moorish Idols eat Cleaner Shrimp housed in the same tank?

Check post #46 in this thread

 

[Paul B]

Check post #46 in this thread

I didn't see anything on post #46 so I will re phraise. I have had dozens of Idols and I almosrt always had cleaner shrimp. None of mine ever hurt a shrimp but i would imagine it's possable.
A moorish Idol has a very weak mouth and tiny useless looking teeth. It has a hard time eating almost anything except the soft sponge it lives on which has the consistancy of stiff Jello

 

[SMOOTHIE]

I didn't see anything on post #46 so I will re phraise. I have had dozens of Idols and I almosrt always had cleaner shrimp. None of mine ever hurt a shrimp but i would imagine it's possable.
A moorish Idol has a very weak mouth and tiny useless looking teeth. It has a hard time eating almost anything except the soft sponge it lives on which has the consistancy of stiff Jello

Yeah I have no clue where that number came from. I was trying to refer to an idol getting cleaned by a shrimp in a pic posted. Maybe it was 47. I know 51 shows the 2 in a tank together.
As stated they will not harm shrimp in any way

 

[tylorarm]

Paul, is the Ocean Nutrition Angel Formula frozen any good for MI's? About its 5th ingredient listed is marine sponge. I feed my MI a couple cubes of this a day. One advantage is most of the other fish don't like it much, so he gets a lot. I feed a bunch of other stuff too but this is the only food that contains marine sponge that i know of that's easy to get.