A Moorish Idol??

[Lynn]

Okay, first off let me tell you that I would never have thought of buying or keeping this hard to keep species...but there is one at my local LFS for about 4 months now in their display tank (175 gal). He eats really well...just about everything they offer him including their corals, which is the reason they are getting rid of him. He was offered to me, and I'm going to take him and put him in my 7' softie/angel tank. I just couldn't say no, plus he has a good chance of making it here with my 200 pounds of liverock etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Anyone with experience in keeping these long term???
thanks

 

[mountainbiker619]

Lynn,

Do a search in this forum for Morish..Garry Thomas (GT) has had one for a while now.
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t ... ght=morish

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t ... ght=morish

 

[outerbank]

He may nip at your LPS corals, especially if they are red or green. May also nip at clams. Feeding should not be a problem since he is eating well. They like to be fed several times a day and this will cut down on the amount they will nip at your corals. Feed them a varied diet and plenty of algae based foods. They also love nori and they will nip less if a nori clip is in the tank.

Angels and tangs can be very aggressive towards the MI. They are incredible swimmers, but I have one and my powder blue tang bothers him more than any of the other fish. Hopefully, tang aggression decreases with time, and that has been the case with me. My PBT is very aggressive when I put nori in the tank. It is so bad, that I seldom put nori in the tank now. I have a yellow tang, PBT, MI, and a lamark angel that all like nori and the MI is 4th on the pecking order (he was also the last fish added). My tank is 240 gallons and the mI needs a big tank. Yours is big enough.

HTHs, Scott

 

[Lynn]

Thanks, Scott how long have you had yours?

 

[outerbank]

Not very long. I bought the MI on Jan 23, 2003. They are pretty disease resistant. They will startle pretty easily but they like to be out and about in the tank. Mine eats nori, mysis shrimp (priscine), frozen blood worms, spiriluna, nori, and a variety of flakes (OSI marine, Omega one, spiriluna, etc).

They lose weight fast if not eating. They probably have a very high metabolism. Since they likely have a fast metabolism, I am not sure how long they live. Most species that grow fast and have fast metabolisms do not live too many years. Mine has grown about 1/2 an inch in the 3 and 1/2 months. He has gotten fatter, but is not a plump fat pig like my other fish.

Scott

 

[CAT]

Scott, have you tried several nori clips? Seems a shame to have one that's eating well and not be able to let it pig out.

 

[Lynn]

Thanks!
Well I've had him now for 8 days and he is eating like a pig. He'll eat all the different algae's (brown, purples and nori from the clip) He loves the spirulina tablets that stick to the glass. He's now (the last 4 days or so) eating flake food and spirulina flake in the water column. He's favorite I think is the meaty stuff like mysis and fresh mussel and clams. I feed all my fish 6 times per day, so he actually has a definite plumpness to his tummy which he didn't have when I first got him. I have him in my angel tank and they seem to get along fine. I fragged all the softie's in there from my other tank for them to nip on, but so far they aren't touching much except a few zoos.
Here's a picture of him. Would love to see a pic of yours??
thanks again

 

[Anonymous]

Lynn said:

He loves the spirulina tablets that stick to the glass.

How do you stick a tablet to the glass?

Nice fish, BTW.

Louey

 

[Lynn]

Well they're called spirulina nibblers made by O.S.I. You just press them on the inside of your tank and they stick. I think they are fairly new and they're kinda expensive, but every fish I have just love them. Plus it seems to really bring out the shy fish where you can watch them eat. It takes about half hour for them to consume a few. They have added beta caratene and Vit C in them as well. I get mine here at Big Al's.
cheers

 

[outerbank]

Sounds like you got a great one Lynn!! He/she should do real well!

CAT, I have tried putting three nori clips in my tank, all at the same time and in different areas of the tank, and the PBT can be a headache (she is a large fish, about 8 inches). I try it on occasions, but instead, I often just let some nori soften in water and then put it in the tank for the fish to eat out of the water column.

Scott

 

[outerbank]

Lynn, that is a beauty! How do you post pictures? I have tried, but at times the file was too large.

Scott

 

[Lynn]

Oh Gosh! I think your asking the wrong person, but I'll try.(It took me forever to figure out! I still haven't figured out this "quote" thing :roll:
I can only tell you how I do it.
Plug my camera in to the computer
Bring up the F drive (which is the memory stick drive )
Click on the Browse button
Pick which photo by the number and then click on submit.
To down size it. I have the vueprint program. I click on image and then crop and then I circle in the size I want. Then I save it.
Hope this helps.
anyone help me to figure out how to reply with quote's

 

[4runner]

That's an INCREDIBLE fish you have there!!! I can see why you jumped at the opportunity to own this difficult fish. Fish nutrition has improved greatly within the last 5 years, and us hobbyists have a variety of foods to choose from. Feed it as much variety as possible (include angel formula), and keep us posted on how well it's doing.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Lynn, that is a beauty! How do you post pictures? I have tried, but at times the file was too large.

Scott

Scott,
Try to resize your picture to 400 pix and use compressing setting to 4-6 out of 10. If you want to post something, email it to me and I post it for you.
BTW, Scott have the fattest, fastest growing PBT I have ever seen. He grew from 3 inches or so to 8 inches over ?1.5 years. His MI is also very healthy and beautiful, as is the rest of the fish in his tank.
Minh Nguyen

 

[Sanfernando]

That's an INCREDIBLE fish you have there!!!

I agree

 

[Anonymous]

anyone help me to figure out how to reply with quote's

THAT I can do, Lynn. It's the BB code, using brackets [] between which you insert the action you want: [ i ] (no spaces) for italics, gotta close always with [ / i ] for instance. For quotes from someone you need to enter thusly [ quote="Lynn" ] [ /quote ] and that will give you this

WHAT AM I DOING???

.

To get a better idea, just hit the quote button on my post and you'll see the quote in place. Same again for color, bold, underlined text, and size.

HTH!

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Here is Scott's Moorish Idol

 

[Anonymous]

That's about as healthy a fish as I've seen. Lynn's is looking really good, too.

 

[Lynn]

Thank you all so much!
It's just so nice not to get flamed, over getting a MI.
Thanks for the tips too!
p.s. "Ida" (thats her name) is also eating flaked foods (which I don't feed very often) but the awesome thing about it is that she is trying whatever I offer up. I offered some scallop in the tweezers today and she even came up and nibbled on it in the tweezers! She wasn't too crazy about them, but she's crazy over mussels and prawns! (she sure has expensive tastes)
anyways, thanks again
cheers

 

[outerbank]

Thanks Minh for posting the pic.

Lynn, they even like pieces of fresh yellowfin tuna (but who doesn't), so anyone having difficulty feeding may want to try to feed small pieces of a lean fish.

This has been a good thread and the thing to learn is that the MI is not impossible. The big difficulty is getting them adjusted to aquarium life and eating food out of the water column. They also appear to need big tanks like a lot of the difficult species. Once eating, they will take many foods. Do not forget the algaes. They may bother corals and clams so be forewarned and prepared to adjust as needed. Get a small one that is eating and your chances are better.

Scott