The Moorish Idol Thread

internal parasites

internal parasites

Spectrum TheraAA pellets by New Life are supposed to help with internal parasites, though they are not medicated. Some friends of mine just got a small MI who seems to be doing very well but I am concerned about parasites because he eats well but is still skinny. I've appointed myself as their fish nanny and had them put the MI on a diet of mysis shimp, spectrum theraAA pellets, and spectrum finicky eater formula plus anything else he will eat supplemented with zoe, zoecon, and garlic elixer. This forum has been so helpful. I will also reccomend they get him some mega marine angel formula with sponge in it and some nori seaweed so he can graze. I am concerned about what appears to be a fluke on his eye. I gave him a freshwater bath for about 10 minutes and treated the tank with prazipro but the fluke is still there. He recovered quickly from the dip, at least, and was eating well again within hours. If the fluke is still present in a few days I think I will try giving him another bath with coppersafe in it. I hate to do it, but I may slice off a branch or two of my tree sponges for him so he can have something to graze on for awhile. I probably wouldn't have bought him myself, but now that they have him we are all getting attached to the little guy, he has so much personality I really hope he will make it.
 
mangrovecrab-Coppersafe will do nothing for the fluke in a dip. If the fluke did not release itself in a freshwater dip for 10 minutes then I doubt what you have is a fluke. When Dipping fish the flukes will usually start streamlining out of the fish within minutes. A strong formalin bath would probably work better in this case.
 
Zfunk, welcome to the world of moorish Idols. It is possable that your fish has intestional paracites but I doubt it. It is a very common affliction of MI's that no one seems to know what is happening. Thats how I lost a few of them. You can try piperazine, which is a non toxic drug. You need to use 250mg/100 gm of moist food for ten days. If it has paracites that will cure it. Maybe Idols are just prone to intestinal nemotodes. Let me know what happens.
Goog luck.
Paul
 
i don't have a moorish Idol but i am interested in the sponge you collect spzfunk007.
i would like to get some off you
shipping is easy you bag them under water and seal the bag with water only
please pm me
and keep up the good work and good luck with the fish
spzfunk007. do you have cleaner shrimp in your tank that might help your fish
 
Well the reason i'm concerned is because like I said I have kept 3 other Moorish Idols at the other LFS I used to work at and none of them had this "skinny" problem and all of them lived over a year (damn hurricanes). They ate well and didn't seem to lose weight.

Perhaps its the area they are collected in. Where I used to work we got our Moorish Idols from Hawaii. And they seemed to do very well. At the wholesaler in Miami that we goto now i'm not sure where they come from, but I know it is somewhere in the Orient. So maybe that has something to do with it.

My Idol still seems to be doing well, eating, spunky as usual, doesn't look any skinnier, but he is skinny. I have given him all of the foods he needs (at least that we know of). Live sponge, formula 2, mysis shrimp, vitamin enriched brine, blood worms, algae strips. And I treat all his food with Selcon and Garlic. Although he isn't to keen on the Spectrum pellets yet, but he does pick at them if I let them soak for a while before I put them in.

I coulden't find pipzine anywhere. I went to 5 different LFS's including my own. I'm looking at piperazine online now Paul. Its sold in 1 gallon jugs for $13.99 and says it is used in the "control of large roundworms in chickens, turkeys, dogs, cats, swine and horses. Aids in the control of large and small strongyles and pinworms in horses." WOuld that be safe to use in my fish food? Yikes... sounds scary.

I'll PM you about the sponge Shane.
 
Zfunk, it is supposed to be safe, I have never used it though.
I hope you can find a smaller amount, probably a vet but he would charge you more.
Good luck.
Paul
 
Here is mine. :D

1
 
I believe space is the key to success.
I have bought it from a poor LFS who has very bad record of maintaining good healthy fish.

Having consider for almost 5 mths before i really decided to buy one. As i am totally aware of the difficulty in keeping this fish.

Started without eating anything. But having less stress with lots of swimming spaces and less competition from other companions. I was surprised that i can train it to eat from nori to home made food, to pellets and even hand feed it with pcs of prawn meat.
 
Well Reefplayer, im impressed. He looks beautiful. His streamer is probably the longest i've ever seen in captivity. How long have you had him? And you have a 450 gallon tank, that probably has alot to do with your success so far. Do you feed him any sponge based foods? What is his favorite?

Its hard to tell from the pics but is he full and round? How big is he? Alot of the ones in captivity seem to have those "lines" down their body I was talking about. Yours doesn't seem to have them. Which is a good sign.
 
zfunk007 said:
Well Reefplayer, im impressed. He looks beautiful. His streamer is probably the longest i've ever seen in captivity. How long have you had him? And you have a 450 gallon tank, that probably has alot to do with your success so far. Do you feed him any sponge based foods? What is his favorite?

Its hard to tell from the pics but is he full and round? How big is he? Alot of the ones in captivity seem to have those "lines" down their body I was talking about. Yours doesn't seem to have them. Which is a good sign.
Click to expand...

Yup he is a beauty and also a temperamental baby. And always have many admirer whenever i post it. I have it for 6 mths until it passed away. The reason being i reduced in feeding as i was afraid that the water getting very dirty with lots of nutrient as i am keeping lots of sps. Maybe due to stress and drop in kH which i do not know whether this is the reason.

I tried at first but it refused to eat so i began to get worried after day 3. So i started to try on nori. To my surprise it started to eat. Having a big tank with lots of swimming space is important especially keeping a big fish like MI. It also helps when you have 2 companion fishes like hungry eating Tangs which can entice MI to eat.

Initially it has "lines" because it was thinning out due to stress and not eating.
I think it enjoyed my hand feed of prawn meat.

But that was all gone 3 mths ago until it rest on bed.

Now i have a new MI which is smaller than this. but has the potential. It begins to eat and no signs of stress. With me for 5days. Seems to enjoy itself.

Hope i can show some pictures later.
 
Some interesting info. I was at work yesterday and this woman came in and we got to talking. And the subject of pipzine came up. Which is the medication that I have been trying to find to treat my Moorish Idol for internal parasites. I think I mentioned that I went to 5 different LFS's looking for it and noone had it.

According to this woman it was taken off the market. She didn't know why though. Strange.... Anyone have any info on this? (my Idol still seems to be doing well for the most part, and is looking a little better)
 
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