MOORISH IDOL

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TFH-Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine

Monster Aquaria Network, composed of Monsterfishkeepers.com, Aquariacentral.com and Aquatic-Photography.com, is currently in partnership with Tropical Fish Hobbyist. We also grant subscription prizes for contest winners.:D

There is a TFH-January 2008 that has an article dedicated to Moorish Idols explaining the high mortality rates and low success rates in housing these fish.
 
Lupin;2292985; said:
TFH-Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine

Monster Aquaria Network, composed of Monsterfishkeepers.com, Aquariacentral.com and Aquatic-Photography.com, is currently in partnership with Tropical Fish Hobbyist. We also grant subscription prizes for contest winners.:D

There is a TFH-January 2008 that has an article dedicated to Moorish Idols explaining the high mortality rates and low success rates in housing these fish.
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Yeah i thought that was the mag, i also browsed that article in there as well but didn't purchase (should have). Might look into some of those contests also.

Plus, my last post i wrote 'their' twice instead of 'there', oops!!!

Having trouble getting this vid on the site, will keep trying.
 
Ricko - I suspect that a large portion of your success is due to the following:
and his favourite is "Spectrum Thera+A Large Fish Formula"
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If you get a chance to read the article in TFH the author (Kieron Dodds) states; "Pablo Tepoot is, perhaps, the single individual who has had the most success with this species" (who also happens to be the creator of the New Life Spectrum line of fish food) Pablo had several idols that he kept successfully for 5 yrs, which unfortunately were lost due to an electrical failure that took place during a hurricane.

The biggest hurdle with this species seems to be getting lucky enough to find specimens that are not overly stressed from collection & transport, and that are in decent health at the time of purchase. If they will take a pellet food (many won't), and if you feed them a high quality pellet such as NLS, the chance of long term success is fairly good.

Unfortunately many idols are in very poor condition by the time they arrive at your LFS, and it becomes very hit & miss in keeping them in the home aquarium.
 
RD.;2388476; said:
Ricko - I suspect that a large portion of your success is due to the following:

If you get a chance to read the article in TFH the author (Kieron Dodds) states; "Pablo Tepoot is, perhaps, the single individual who has had the most success with this species" (who also happens to be the creator of the New Life Spectrum line of fish food) Pablo had several idols that he kept successfully for 5 yrs, which unfortunately were lost due to an electrical failure that took place during a hurricane.

The biggest hurdle with this species seems to be getting lucky enough to find specimens that are not overly stressed from collection & transport, and that are in decent health at the time of purchase. If they will take a pellet food (many won't), and if you feed them a high quality pellet such as NLS, the chance of long term success is fairly good.

Unfortunately many idols are in very poor condition by the time they arrive at your LFS, and it becomes very hit & miss in keeping them in the home aquarium.
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Thanks for the feedback RD, spoke privately to a moderater a while back and he pretty much put it down to my moorish being shipped in good condition, and its prolly true because even though he was getting the crap kicked out of him by a yellow tang he looked healthy as!! He came from a place called Cairns Marine and they have a pretty good rep over here in Brisbane.

Anyway my moorish wouldn't eat for the first week but after that he has smashed everything that i put in the tank, he is like a dog and wags full on when he sees me coming with any food. I honestly think he will live til he is old(hopefully i don't have any dramas like Pablo). But i think you are right with the spectrum because when i run out it is sometimes a few days before i can get some more and i notice a difference in his weight even though he is eating other food.

Other than that he is a tough fish, i made a mistake a while back and introduced a disease into my tank which wiped out 4 clowns that i had in 2 days, my moorish and regal looked like crap for about a week and then got over it like nothing happened.
By the way i have had him one year and four months TODAY!!! Top Stuff!!!
 
a lot that has to do with the success of any fish is its catch and ship methods. It takes a great deal of patience to catch a hard to keep species of fish without the use of cyonide and transport that to a good fish holder. As long as they keep good water quality and feed him appropriate foods then the chances of success increase. Only issue with this is, they may do a good job, but the other 10 sets of hands may not. Fish will normally take a while before they die of starvation and depending on the size of the fish, the more fat it will have and more likely they are to live longer

In summary, Id predict that as foods constantly change and the equipment that were able to purchase and all the other changes this hobby sees, that in a few years we'll be able to keep morish idols successfully and maybe even get them to breed. Now wouldn't that be something, getting morish idols to breed, which would help us out big time, by just tank raising the babies, eventually they would fair better in captivity, you'd think.
 
Yes, the manner in which any marine fish is collected & shipped is going to play heavily into how long that fish will survive in captivity. Having said that, you will find very few people in this hobby that have kept Moorish Idol long term, as in years, not months. Most marine keepers (including Kieron Dodds) feed a "wide variety" of foods, yet still can't seem to keep this species long term. Eventually the fish simply whither away.
Yet recently I have seen hobbyists that are completely new to marine fish keeping Moorish Idol (some for over 2 yrs) and feeding only 1 single food, the same food that Pablo feeds his fish. (New Life Spectrum)

Does this amount to nothing more than a coincidence?


The owner of the idol shown below feeds NLS exclusively, and even with this being his very first marine set up, he has managed to keep this fish thriving in captivity for approx 2 yrs now. While feeding a single commercial food may go against conventional thinking, it's difficult to argue with the results.


waruna2.jpg
 
Thought i would chuck in a photo as well because they are awesome fish. Was actually selling my setup a few mths back (worth approx A$8000-$10,000) but people wanted it for less than $3000 so wasn't worth losing it. I think i would have regretted it too, losing the moorish and my regal which i have had for 3 years. By the way Sweetang, i will look into it but i am pretty sure Cairns Marine catch the fish themselves and hold in their warehouse, then ship straight to the local stores, not that this would help you in USA i guess.

Picture 153.jpg
 
Well done Rick, nice set up. :thumbsup:
 
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