Success with the Moorish Idol

[Inklinkerman]

Just after a bit of data about how many people have actually kept these for any length of time...and for how long, in what, and feeding on what. Appolgies if this has been done before.

I just want to get an as accurate as possible picture as to a experienced reefers chances with these fish and if possible to try to understand any simularities in successful set ups.

I want to avoid the blanket "these fish are impossible" statement or things similar and get an experienced based feedback only. So if you've never tried one please state that, but by all means engage in the thread

In this case I think an alive and well fish at the 24 mth mark can be gauged as successful (not saying this is a true natural lifespan, but an arbitrary point). if someone has done this could they give as much info, as possible a to the selection, tank spec, tank mates, year the fish bought, feeding etc. to try to isolate some constants. Equally as important are causes of faliure, not fun to talk about but useful nontheless.

Hope we can come to some conclusions from this!


Cheers

Dave

[Inklinkerman]

NB you can vote multiple times if you have tried more than one idol, im trying to get as much data as possible......and no one tell any nose growers!

[blackjack666]

i had one for a few months.... ate fine, good as gold, didnt touch corals and ate flake and truely stunning....

during system upgrade i had all my fish in the qt system along with corals, somehow ended up having a massive whitespot outbreak which i couldnt treat due to the corals.... he was the only fish that didnt recover....

i would say, only risk if you have a perminent qt syste, regularly mix types of food... it is also worth worming them regardless if a shop tells you it has been done as they are a nightmore for worm issues.... be prepared to have any fleshy sps eaten.. then can change overnight

[Deejay88]

How many can you keep at once? Great looking fish they souls look better in a shoal

[Inklinkerman]

thanks for that, I had a similar thing happen with a settled copperband...it's gutting

they can be kept in shoals if you have the room and the food, which very few people would.

[Funkymonkey]

Never tried one, display is 450l but then loads of rock displacement, if I had a bigger tank I'd try one. Infact if it wasnt for my boisterous sailfin I'd probably have tried one by now, same with a copperband

[blackjack666]

get an aussie copperband, he will kick the **** out of a sailfin and wont suddenly drop dead

[Lukini]

I had one for about 2 weeks. He never really fed properly. While he would take the occasional mysis he never ate with appetite. Tried him, with Nori, other seaweeds and Angelfish formula (with sponges etc) but to no avail. . . .

[Inklinkerman]

I had one for about 2 weeks. He never really fed properly. While he would take the occasional mysis he never ate with appetite. Tried him, with Nori, other seaweeds and Angelfish formula (with sponges etc) but to no avail. . . .

thanks for the info, and dont forget to vote

then we can quantify it.

thanks

Dave

[36willow]

I have had my moorish idol for almost 5 years(yes FIVE YEARS). I had him as a small 2-3inch fish from a well known shop in Leicester... i saw him feed in the shop and I asked for food to be put into his oversized bag for transport home, after a very slow drip acclimatisation and introduction into my tank ( aqua medic 120 percula) i offered him food... which he ate... so he had eaten on three occasions in the space of approx 4 hours and from that day on he will eat anything... pellets, flake, mysis, brine, krill, squid, prawn.... basically any food that i have ever offered... he has eaten and will gladly take the food out of my hand.
he is the boss of my tank and is easily double the size at approx 5-6 inches across.
I bloody love him!
If u have any questions send me a pm.