The Moorish Idol Thread
- Thread starter zfunk007
- Start date
hi all
just thought i would let you all know ,i got my first M i yesterday been researching for a while ,as i wanted to make this work
its good to see a thread on moorish idol where people are giving advice not flaming ,i have found the feeding advice great
bought my from an lfs just outside london ,he was feeding well ,and i kept an eye on him for a couple of weeks to be safe
willl try to get some pics to show ya
is it true M I does not like copper as mine seems to have a little white spot ,i have him eating frozen foods with garlic at the mo
,i am going shopping for all the different foods i can get to try to see what he likes
thanks Mark
just thought i would let you all know ,i got my first M i yesterday been researching for a while ,as i wanted to make this work
its good to see a thread on moorish idol where people are giving advice not flaming ,i have found the feeding advice great
bought my from an lfs just outside london ,he was feeding well ,and i kept an eye on him for a couple of weeks to be safe
willl try to get some pics to show ya
is it true M I does not like copper as mine seems to have a little white spot ,i have him eating frozen foods with garlic at the mo
,i am going shopping for all the different foods i can get to try to see what he likes
thanks Mark
Paul B
Premium Member
Kieron, besides bananas I feed the Idol mysis, plankton, sponge (that I collect) garlic, clams, selcon, amphipods and worms. He gets marine food. I also collect all sorts of things in the sea that he eats. He has been with me almost three years so I guess He is happy.
Paul
Paul
i have tried loads in the two days i've had him he seems really timid at the mo and has only eaten small amounts
food list so far is , nori sheets ,frozen mysis ,frozen butterfly mix(which is what he was eating in the shop) ,various marine flakes and catfish pellets
am picking up some ocean nutrition pellets tomorrow any tips on getting them feeding ,from what i have read on this thread you need to try everything till you find what he likes
his white spot is almost gone
will keep ya informed
food list so far is , nori sheets ,frozen mysis ,frozen butterfly mix(which is what he was eating in the shop) ,various marine flakes and catfish pellets
am picking up some ocean nutrition pellets tomorrow any tips on getting them feeding ,from what i have read on this thread you need to try everything till you find what he likes
his white spot is almost gone
will keep ya informed
Paul B
Premium Member
Markey, that is a skinny Idol. Mine now eats anything, I think he would eat cardboard but at first the only thing he would eat was "Soft and Moist" pellets. He still gets the pellets once a day from an automatic feeder that dispenses the pellets into a funnel that goes to a tube to a dish on the bottom. I taught him to eat from the dish because he sees the pellets falling down the tube and he waits for them to emerge. The other fish can't seem to comprehend that food comes into the dish which is what I hoped. I only want the Idol to get them. Of course the Idol was eating pellets in the store or I would not have bought him.
I also collect a lot of sponge in the sea which is his favorite food. I try to feed that every day along with other stuff. It is all I ever saw them eat in the sea.
Yours looks too skinny to recover but I hope I am wrong. These fish have surprised me before.
The only problem I find with Idols (after you get them eating) is that they eat so much and so often that I have to change a lot of water. He is really messing up my tank. But thats life.
Good luck with yours
Paul
I also collect a lot of sponge in the sea which is his favorite food. I try to feed that every day along with other stuff. It is all I ever saw them eat in the sea.
Yours looks too skinny to recover but I hope I am wrong. These fish have surprised me before.
The only problem I find with Idols (after you get them eating) is that they eat so much and so often that I have to change a lot of water. He is really messing up my tank. But thats life.
Good luck with yours
Paul
KDodds
New member
New Life Spectrum Pellets, 1mm size, are taken by most Moorish Idols almost instantaneously if they're not already too far gone. I agree with the others, this fish is emaciated, but that it is eating at all is a good sign. You might also try Formula Two and Angel Formula, Flake or Frozen, and Pro Salt Veggie Formula.
Skynyrd Fish
Member
If your Idol is eating only small amounts, try feeding him frequently, in small amounts. Try 4 - 6 times a day. good luck.
HEy I saw this post and I have a moorish idol so i decided I would share some info on mine if anyone is interested! ME and my cousin have had our moorish Idol for about 6 mounths now. We acclimated his dietary behavior by putting in a live orange tree sponge witch he nipped on for a couple of days. 6 mounths later we have him with a whole lot of fish living peacefully.. YEllow tang... niger trigger.. black angel... and a buitifull maroon clown with bubble anenome. we have recently sent a 2 page article, picture, and video to Tropical fish hobbyiest magazine showing our moorish idol eating standard flake and pellet food. (in addition to the high quality food we feed) SO I hope they publish our pictures Can anyone tell me any cool facts about there moorish idols I am obsessed with this species of fish THANX!
Paul B
Premium Member
Italia, at the beginning of this thread I posted some pictures of Idols that I took in French Polynesia. They come from shallow water, live in mated pairs, eat mostly sponges and are not very rare. They are all over the Pacific. Also IMO the most beautiful fish in the sea. good luck with yours
Paul
Paul
Paul B
Premium Member
Antonia, it is a little confusing and I would get you more confused. You should start a new thread about it and there are a lot of people here that are very good at that. It took me about a year to learn but now it seems kind of simple.
I only know how to post pictures from my gallery but these guys know how to post pictures from anywhere. The trickiest part is shrinking the file size of the picture.
Paul
I only know how to post pictures from my gallery but these guys know how to post pictures from anywhere. The trickiest part is shrinking the file size of the picture.
Paul
7thheaven
Premium Member
I have a MI that is eating pellet dry food. there were a few people
that had MI eating pellet but their MI were dead within a year.
They said there was no reason, symptom...Dead suddenly...
I think it is because they do not have enough nutrient to live with
just Pellet food.
My MI is eating pellet like pig but I am a little warried.
I read this thread and found MI eat sponges. so I bought a small
piece of Blue sponge but he was not interested in this.
They eat blue sponge or I should look for orange sponge?
I wanna give him to sponge as special food once or twice a week.
TIA
that had MI eating pellet but their MI were dead within a year.
They said there was no reason, symptom...Dead suddenly...
I think it is because they do not have enough nutrient to live with
just Pellet food.
My MI is eating pellet like pig but I am a little warried.
I read this thread and found MI eat sponges. so I bought a small
piece of Blue sponge but he was not interested in this.
They eat blue sponge or I should look for orange sponge?
I wanna give him to sponge as special food once or twice a week.
TIA
Paul B
Premium Member
You are correct they should not live on pellets. Give him some fresh clam, mysis, nori and plankton. I collect sponge which he loves but they don't eat all sponges. Also finding a moorish Idol dead after a couple of years is usually what happens. For some reason they die with no visable symptoms.
Paul
Paul
KDodds
New member
It's entirely possible to sustain MIs for long periods of time on pellet foods. In fact, one of the most successful Idol keepers does this exclusively. Pablo Tepoot has kept Idols for up to 5 years feeding solely NLS. Even more amazing is that the Idols didn't die in the routine "for no reason" fashion, but rather as a result of natural disaster (I believe it was a hurricane).
Paul B is right, they won't eat just any old sponge. I have heard from quite a few people who've tried that the most commonly available sponges in LFSs are not readily accepted (Tree, Fan, Ball). I have at least a dozen different sponges growing in my reef and none are even looked at twice.
There are 4 references that I could find regarding MI gut studies. The 3 most recent (1 from Japan, 2 from Hawai'i) report that MIs are found with better than 80% sponge in their guts. The last, from Gilbert Island in the 1950s (Randall) reports predominantly algal matter, but consists of only two samples.
There are no reports on size, sex, age, or anything that might even remotely indicate change in diet, but it is fairly common that those Idols that are smaller (<= 2½", 5.8cm) will more readily accept other aquarium fare. This is the point at which they're considered "post-larval juveniles". It would make a lot of sense since there can't be that much available sponge in the plankton stream, and there's so much other stuff mixed in that planktonic larvae may not be able to afford to be that "choosy".
Mine is doing so well (banner is actually growing, and now ~2.5-3x the length of the fish) that I added another yesterday. Against my better judgement, since it was not even remotely interested in food, I brought it home.
In the store, with only their tanks and other fish as background, it looked a lot larger to me. I probably should have realized that there's not much size difference between a 3+" Idol (the one I had already) and a 4" Idol (which I correctly judged this new one to be). Anyway, I guess the background threw me off because relatively, my "old one" seemed a lot smaller, at purchase, than this "new one". And he was. Much. About half the size. It's amazing what two short months in a very large tank with multiple daily feedings can do.
When I got the new one home and in the tank (after acclimation of course), I was pretty surprised at exactly how much and how quickly the existing one has grown with a more relative comparison at his side.
So, no, it didn't eat in the store. It didn't eat last night. When I introduced it, WW III broke out. The PBT, what else is new, was the first to go on the rampage, accidentally "hit" the Apolemichthys, which brought on more than the PBT could reasonably handle. Then the PBT, fleeing the Flagfin, couldn't decide which MI was which and started going for both, which brought on the rage of the Foxface who, amazingly, can pound the PBT if he gets ired up enough. The whole while, the Cleaner Wrasse is trying to clean the "new guy", who's loving every minute of the cleaning, until the PBT comes along to put an end to it. Nowhere to be seen is the almost 10" Scribbled who is still getting beat on by a 3" BG Chromis guarding its nest (spawned, again). Because the Scribbled has been getting hammered for the last few days, the Navarchus is in hiding and out of the mix as well. When things calmed down a bit, the smaller, original Idol, started picking on the new one, but in a repeated and odd way. He/she bumps/nips the new one directly in the middle of one side. This must be something of an Idol behavior I guess. The smaller one was still hanging out mostly with the Foxface last night.
This morning, I caught the new, larger Idol snatching up some Chromis eggs as the Chromis' back was turned. Not enough to sustain him, for sure, but at least a good sign that he is interested in eating something.
Paul B is right, they won't eat just any old sponge. I have heard from quite a few people who've tried that the most commonly available sponges in LFSs are not readily accepted (Tree, Fan, Ball). I have at least a dozen different sponges growing in my reef and none are even looked at twice.
There are 4 references that I could find regarding MI gut studies. The 3 most recent (1 from Japan, 2 from Hawai'i) report that MIs are found with better than 80% sponge in their guts. The last, from Gilbert Island in the 1950s (Randall) reports predominantly algal matter, but consists of only two samples.
There are no reports on size, sex, age, or anything that might even remotely indicate change in diet, but it is fairly common that those Idols that are smaller (<= 2½", 5.8cm) will more readily accept other aquarium fare. This is the point at which they're considered "post-larval juveniles". It would make a lot of sense since there can't be that much available sponge in the plankton stream, and there's so much other stuff mixed in that planktonic larvae may not be able to afford to be that "choosy".
Mine is doing so well (banner is actually growing, and now ~2.5-3x the length of the fish) that I added another yesterday. Against my better judgement, since it was not even remotely interested in food, I brought it home.
In the store, with only their tanks and other fish as background, it looked a lot larger to me. I probably should have realized that there's not much size difference between a 3+" Idol (the one I had already) and a 4" Idol (which I correctly judged this new one to be). Anyway, I guess the background threw me off because relatively, my "old one" seemed a lot smaller, at purchase, than this "new one". And he was. Much. About half the size. It's amazing what two short months in a very large tank with multiple daily feedings can do.
When I got the new one home and in the tank (after acclimation of course), I was pretty surprised at exactly how much and how quickly the existing one has grown with a more relative comparison at his side.So, no, it didn't eat in the store. It didn't eat last night. When I introduced it, WW III broke out. The PBT, what else is new, was the first to go on the rampage, accidentally "hit" the Apolemichthys, which brought on more than the PBT could reasonably handle. Then the PBT, fleeing the Flagfin, couldn't decide which MI was which and started going for both, which brought on the rage of the Foxface who, amazingly, can pound the PBT if he gets ired up enough. The whole while, the Cleaner Wrasse is trying to clean the "new guy", who's loving every minute of the cleaning, until the PBT comes along to put an end to it. Nowhere to be seen is the almost 10" Scribbled who is still getting beat on by a 3" BG Chromis guarding its nest (spawned, again). Because the Scribbled has been getting hammered for the last few days, the Navarchus is in hiding and out of the mix as well. When things calmed down a bit, the smaller, original Idol, started picking on the new one, but in a repeated and odd way. He/she bumps/nips the new one directly in the middle of one side. This must be something of an Idol behavior I guess. The smaller one was still hanging out mostly with the Foxface last night.
This morning, I caught the new, larger Idol snatching up some Chromis eggs as the Chromis' back was turned. Not enough to sustain him, for sure, but at least a good sign that he is interested in eating something.
Paul B
Premium Member
It is true that they will not eat just any sponge but as I said at the beginning of this thread I did learn from diving with them for a week in Bora Bora and other parts of French Polynesia that sponge is all I ever saw them eat. Of course I couldn't get that close all the time and I can't keep up with them as they do their 50 yard dashes to new sponge hunting grounds. The sponges they were eating were like a lime green sticky stuff. Every time I reached the sponge, the Idol finished it and I couldn't identify it. My three year old eats common New York encrusting sponge with gusto. I have no idea if it is beneficial to him because it looks like dirt but with the nutrients we have here (and polluntants) it must do something. Mine will eat anything, I think he would eat cardboard.
I only found them in mated pairs with the male leading the female to food. I never saw the female getting to the food first and most of the time, when the female caught up to the male at a sponge, he would leave and she would finish the sponge. I can't say if this has anything to do with their survivability in an aquarium but I never witnessed this type of behavior in other fish.
Idols are also rather common but I never saw more than three together so I would imagine they stake out a territory which seems to be about 100 yards. They live in close association with heniocus (false moorish Idols).
I saw a lot more of them in shallow water about 12' deep rather than 50 feet deep.
As for pellets, I feed mine pellets once or twice a day in a feeder.
Paul
I only found them in mated pairs with the male leading the female to food. I never saw the female getting to the food first and most of the time, when the female caught up to the male at a sponge, he would leave and she would finish the sponge. I can't say if this has anything to do with their survivability in an aquarium but I never witnessed this type of behavior in other fish.
Idols are also rather common but I never saw more than three together so I would imagine they stake out a territory which seems to be about 100 yards. They live in close association with heniocus (false moorish Idols).
I saw a lot more of them in shallow water about 12' deep rather than 50 feet deep.
As for pellets, I feed mine pellets once or twice a day in a feeder.
Paul
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