Moorish idol attempt

[Usingthejohn]

Yesterday my wife bought this for me as a bday gift. I was at reef raft staring at it for an hour, watching it eat. It ate pellets in their tanks, but not frozen. They also informed me they've had it for about 3 weeks now. So I figured why not try. Give it a shot. I know the odds aren't in my favor, based off what I've read off various links and searches. But one common thing I read is that if the specimen in question is from hawaii, and eating in the store, odds are improved a bit.

Took it home, wasn't eating the new era marine pellets I have, nor any frozen.

Today I tried some Capelin roes from the asian supermarket. While most of the other fish gave some interest towards it, the idol didnt....Or at least not that I can gather. However I did see it picking at the rocks over the last 15 minutes I watched the tank.

Tomorrow I'll go look for some new life pellets and see if I have better luck.

 

[Straight_OG]

My moorish idols that ive had before would not anything but new life spectrum. Im sure will go nuts when you feed it that.
They also have a new food for "finicky eaters" you might want to try.
But they do fine on just tue normal. Also make sure you buy them small enough they can get in ok one bite. No the big ones they have a little harder time
Good luck budy. They are amazing fish

 

[orbela]

Good Luck!!! Man I wish I can upgrade my tank at the moment

 

[UMass14]

Try black live worms from your lfs.

 

[Usingthejohn]

Try black live worms from your lfs.

Any you know of that stocks them? Th e ones I frequent don't have them

 

[Six2seven]

Hope he survives!

 

[Liquidgold]

Tongs sells live black worms. $1 per small bag. Good luck.

 

[SC50964]

Try the NLS Finicky formula. That's how I got mine started.


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[Usingthejohn]

Try the NLS Finicky formula. That's how I got mine started.


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That's exactly the one reef raft was feeding. Luckily marine depot has them. I'll pick some up Tuesday when they have will call.

 

[bullitr]

They don't eat when they are threaten IME or is it by itself in qt?
Live black worms or live brine are great to get it start eating again.

Mine lose some weight because it competing with a lot of fish but its getting more and more aggressive now even my PBT don't mess with it. Its eating a lot of pellets again and everything I throw in the tank hopefully it plump up again. Good luck with yours one of my favorite fish in the ocean and will not have a tank without one.


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[rayray]

good thing it eats NLS pellets aready, thats good for calories. for that mystery nutrient they need Ive used frozen Hikari Mega-Marine Angel because it has sponge. MI natural diet is sponge and coral. Lastly, they are very wimpy fish succeptible to bullying by tangs, angels and even butterflys; and IME do best in their own chamber with low light and medium flow.
its doable, good luck!

 

[jeffreylam1132]

That's exactly the one reef raft was feeding. Luckily marine depot has them. I'll pick some up Tuesday when they have will call.

You should go back to reef raft and ask if you can buy some of those pellets that the idol was eating. That way, at least you don't starve him till Tuesday.

 

[Usingthejohn]

You should go back to reef raft and ask if you can buy some of those pellets that the idol was eating. That way, at least you don't starve him till Tuesday.

Luckily, I noticed the Moorish Idol starting to pick at some New Era pellets thats in my auto feeder. However, I sent a text to Tony @ Reef Raft and he doesn't have any of the pellets in stock; i may drop by today and ask if he can give me some to last the day. Also another member off another forum provided me with his Moorish food concoction that's helped him keep his MI for over 5.5 years now.

 

[Tangwich]

nice find..hope it does well in your tank. since reefers will always give it a go with MI, sharing that recipe might help others also...i recently picked up a baby heniochus from jayson and it's eating (pellets and mysis) and competing with my 3x larger regal angel. good luck with that beauty.

 

[Usingthejohn]

nice find..hope it does well in your tank. since reefers will always give it a go with MI, sharing that recipe might help others also...i recently picked up a baby heniochus from jayson and it's eating (pellets and mysis) and competing with my 3x larger regal angel. good luck with that beauty.

well if i knew the recipe myself, I would. Unfortunately, the person providing me the sample is on RC, and is just shipping me his Moorish recipe. However, I will continue to update this thread and provide as much information as possible for the people interested.

People who have had success with Moorish Idols longterm keep them in at least pairs. It appears that the single specimens die more frequently, whereas success stories involve pairs. I may have to get another one from ReefRaft if they do have it still.

 

[rayray]

Ive tried 3, 4 MIs together, all tiny from Hawaii. After getting comfortable they try to kill each other. I always had to give all but 1 away. So 3 yrs max for my MIs & would have been longer if my trigger didnt scare him.

 

[orbela]

nice find..hope it does well in your tank. since reefers will always give it a go with MI, sharing that recipe might help others also...i recently picked up a baby heniochus from jayson and it's eating (pellets and mysis) and competing with my 3x larger regal angel. good luck with that beauty.

I was about to buy the heniochus but wasn't sure if it was the coral eating type.


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[Tangwich]

I was about to buy the heniochus but wasn't sure if it was the coral eating type.


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yeah, there are a few different types of bannerfish. the 2 that he had i recognized as diphreutes aka the reef safe ones. jayson confirmed it and when he fed them both, only one was aggressively going after food so that's the one i took. wish i would have taken them both now since i love watching their elongated dorsal fins swim together in schooling fashion. btw, so far he hasn't even looked in the direction of any of my corals (fingers crossed)

 

[orbela]

yeah, there are a few different types of bannerfish. the 2 that he had i recognized as diphreutes aka the reef safe ones. jayson confirmed it and when he fed them both, only one was aggressively going after food so that's the one i took. wish i would have taken them both now since i love watching their elongated dorsal fins swim together in schooling fashion. btw, so far he hasn't even looked in the direction of any of my corals (fingers crossed)

That's awesome. I remember mine didn't touch it either then I posted about his good behavior and then picking at corals. Good luck!


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[ItsTheNano]

That's awesome. I remember mine didn't touch it either then I posted about his good behavior and then picking at corals. Good luck!


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Yeah i had the reef safe one. He still went after lps. I guess its not really reef safe but "with caution"