Haters Gonna Hate
 

So today i brought home a moorish idol.

The LFS has had him quarantine for about 10 weeks now and he's eating NLS pellets. He looks healthy and chubby.

Brought him home, acclimated him for an hour, divided the tank with egg crate and put him in the right side alone. Purple tang and other tangs are in the left side.

now half an hour after putting him in. he's eating like a pig again

hopefully i will succeed. i really really love this fish

http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/s...4at41816PM.png

http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/s...4at41737PM.png

I hope he works out well for you!

He's gorgeous, good luck!

thanks guys.

that picture is with only 2 SOL fixtures on there. still waiting for third one

Nice fishy! How come you are separating him from the others?

i want him to get comfortable and im afraid my purple tang is gonna beat up on him

so ill give him a couple weeks to settle in and hopefully when i take the divider out, everyone will get along

The egg crate trick worked great for me in the past. I used to keep new tangs inside an egg crate enclosure until the old tangs got used to seeing, smelling, tasting? the new fish. Sometimes it only took a couple of days. Once it took a couple of weeks. Then I release the new fish and there is minimal chasing around because they've all had a chance to get used to the newcomer beforehand.

Good luck with the MI. I had one back in the 80s in my first fish only tank (not a fowlr since I didn't know what live rock was and you couldn't find live rock in the LFS anyways). Once acclimated and eating, I found mine to be very hardy. Only sold him off because I had to shut down my 110g and concentrate on my university studies:sad:

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm gonna keep the egg crate there at least 10 days. Hopefully my tangs won't mind too much

What type of NLS do you feed ?
The finicky fish version? Large marine fish? or something else?

the 1mm cichlid formula.

same stuff that all my fish go crazy for

So beautiful !

I hope everything works out.....

Good luck with him! They are gorgeous fish :)

Jeez, I would be tempted too! Is he eating frozen foods too? I think you have the right idea with the divider. Good luck with him! It's nice to see someone doing it the right way.

yup eats mysis and brine shrimp. eats NLS and formula 1 pellets as well

ive had it on hold since they got it. and i was checking up on it weekly.

Could you share who the vendor was that was willing to quarantine this difficult to keep species for you for such a length of time? They could use some praise. :)

Beautiful fish Marko!! Hope it works out!

I hope everything goes good. Its finally good to see someone put up a post on a sensitive fish and NOT have some douchetard calling you out and telling you to return it to the fish store. Nice fish and good plan that you thought up.

The "douchetards" often have very good reason to be concerned about a fish that is "near impossible" to keep that is usually just dumped into a reef and told "good luck little buddy". Marko is making a good effort to treat this fish properly and is going out of his way to try to provide the fish what it needs. Big difference. :clap2:

Great looking fish. I really love these although it's doubtful I'll ever have a tank large enough for my liking to house one. Great news that he's eating, that's certainly half the battle with these fish. Best of luck.

+1

Always loved this type of fish. I tried twice and failed. I hope you have better luck :biggrin:

Good idea seperating them. You never know. He's beautiful btw.

thanks guys. i was honestly expecting a bunch of people to come in here and tell me to leave this fish in the wild. although that could be a valid argument, it was already at the store, if i hadnt bought it, someone with a 40 gallon tank could have bought it

as much as i would say it to people i always look at it this way....all marine fish were once hard to keep alive, with the advances in food and technology the right applied mind can have a good chance at keeping just about any species alive, if someone just bought a mi on a whim id say bring it back but if someone wants to try and knows the risks and are prepared to do what it takes to give it a shot then who knows maybe youll find what alot havent:) good luck:)

you should keep records of the foods your gonna try and everything else so anyone reading this can learn :) cheers mate

Well put Reefwars. Myself i'm pretty sick of those "know it all do gooders" that have all these "donts" that they like to point out but never have any of the do's to contribute. These douchetards as I like to call them just seem to chase people away from this site and the hobby.

IN deed, 10 weeks is amazing quarantine and acclimatation. I have never seen this from any LFS around here.

Good luck with your fish!

Moorish Idols aren't as popular as some difficult fish like Copperband Butterflies for example. I find CBBs to be a frustrating fish because you can find one in darn near every LFS on darn near any day of the week, and it seems like darn near every reef hobbyist takes a stab at the fish. At only $25, many people don't think twice about it. Moorish Idols cost a bit more, get a bit bigger, and aren't seen as often in the LFS so there aren't as many people taking a stab at them, and thus not as many people failing. I think a Moorish Idol is probably easier to keep for a year or more than a CBB provided each fish is eating.

The argument about not buying the fish is that if an LFS can't sell a specie of fish and instead have that fish repeatedly die in their care or sit in the tank for weeks then they will quit importing that fish. LFS don't make money off dead fish or fish that stay in their tanks for weeks (or months) on end.

You are taking the right approach to keeping this fish, and you seem to know what you're getting into. You had at least 10 weeks to think about the fish and research its needs (which I hope you took advantage of). That's about the best you can do and people should admire the dedication and passion you have.

I don't think name calling gets anyone anywhere. No need for that. :neutral:

Good luck with the beauty! Keep us posted.

Why is that? if a copperband is eating well and it is healthy why would it not last more than one year?

I have my copperband for a year now and I surely hope he'll live longter than that because he's my favorite fish. Very fat, active and healthy.

Do they have such short livespawn as 1 year???

There's no reason to hate on this, you and your LFS did a good job before it even got to your tank. You're now making sure it is not stressed by its other tankmates and letting it get settled, its eating like a piggy. Its forums like these that make educating people so much easier. I know someone who added 2 (qt, eating first, etc), I saw them and thought, oh nice fishes. He told me more about them and I knew they were not for me (lack of experience, too small of a tank, etc). He took a LOT of heat as well for the MIs, and for having 2 but he's done extremely well with them, I believe they went into a 300 gl set up.

Thank you for sharing, looking forward to updates on how he's doing.

Very impressed with this thread, all positive, and this is what we all should see.

Congrats on the new fish, they are beautiful. I hope it thrives in your tank.

It's most likely because of their diet. Both CBB and MI are very specific about what they eat in the wild. Therefore their digest systems are adapted to what they eat. If you feed some foods that not their nature diet, they may eat them. But they probably won't be able to digest them. Or maybe they can digest the food, but there are some specific nutrients in their diet that are missing from what they are eating in our tanks. This specifically apply to MI since we know that their main diet is sponge in the wild.

this fish is hilarious and so interesting to watch.

when i feed the tank i always feed it on the left side and allow the powerheads to scatter the food.

well he figured it out so when he sees that im feeding he goes up to the egg crate and puts his mouth through one of the holes so he can reach the food before it crosses the eggcrate

George has the right idea. Most Butterflyfish, some Angels, Moorish Idols, some other fish...they have poor long-term survival. The cause hasn't been studied (as most things in the reef hobby), so it is not known for sure, but the pros are suggesting that it is likely due to us being unable to provide a suitable diet for them to thrive long-term. Most of these fish naturally eat a lot of sponge in their diet, but again that hasn't been studied so there could be other things we are missing. Your best bet is to feed a specie intended diet.

moorish idol still doing great.

eats everything i feed my tank (nori, NLS, Formula1, brine shrimp, plankton) plus ive been using sponge power and theres hundreds of pineapple sponges growing everywhere and he hunts for those throughout the day.

Marko good to hear man , put a mirror in front of the tangs and that will solve your problems i did it for 2 weeks and now its like they dont care m y kole is constantly looking for himself too funny

Thank you...

I just sell them if they mistreat my moorish idol

Have you taken out the eggcrate yet?

Such a beauty I wish I could find a store willing to QT for that long. I would buy one too.

Yeah I took it out 10 days after adding the fish

I hate you right now.. Man those are nice fish.