NEW Moorish Idol

How lucky can a guy get! I just purchased a medium sizez M. Idol from my LFS for $90. It eats with gusto and is not shy. My purple tang tried to bully it at first but the M. Idol fought back and is now the Stud of the tank. It's eating formula 1 frozen a long with mysis shrimp, frozen plankton and brine shrimp. I would normally not have purchased such a fish but it was eating so
aggressively at the store. I wish I had a digital camera to post pic's.
Does anyone have any experience and advice on keeping this fish? 8)

 

They are sensitive to Ammonia and PH swings ... neither of which should be a problem in a well cared for reef tank. Other than that, you've overcome the real challenge: keeping them fed. As long as he keeps eating you should be fine. Be sure to feed him often, rather than a lot. Congrats on finding a good one. Take good care of him!

 

very cool i always wanted one

 

Thanks! It gets even better. I tried some freeze dried brine shrimp and formula pellet food. The M. Idol gobbles up the shrimp and will nibble on the pellets. I know I can't sustain it on freeze dried brine shrimp but it will sure help when I go on vacation for 7-10 days and use my automatic feeder.

 

Cool! Got Pics?

 

wow! you are also lucky too! check out my idol's go search (moorish idol eating seaweeds) video

 

The problem with them seems to be that they suddenly stop eating after a period of time, like 2-3 months in, rather than them not eating to begin with.

 

can't wait to see pics

 

I've never kept them, but I would imagine the problem with them in captivity would be a nutrition issue... Idols get VERY large and IMO would need a constant supply of very high quality food, more so than just frozen or pellet, I would at least be packing (soaking) everything I fed in vitamins... garlic extract would also be good IMO, I feel it has certain healing and deisese fighting properties... just some food for thought, again I've never owned an Idol... it just seems like it'd be a good idea to try and prevent any problems from occuring in the future..

 

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