I was at King Ed's a week and a half a ago and they had a few Moorish Idols. I just set up a 4'x8' frag system and was looking for some fish for it. Because of the size of my tank, I took a chance on one of the Idols. It took him a few days to come out from hiding when I came around, but eventually he did. He wasn't eating anything I put in the tank, but I did notice him pecking at rocks and at some algae growing on frag plugs. He slowly progressed to where he would get into the feeding frenzy and chase mysis around when it was added, but he would just spit it out.
Finally yesterday came the big breakthrough! I was going to add another sheet of Nori, but at the last minute decided to add some flake first. Wow! He started eating it like there was no tomorrow! He's out swimming much more comfortably now too. He has also buddied up with another new fish - an XL Naso tang (who is also hiding a lot and not eating, but I just got him last weekend). The Naso is a big boy and will hopefully come around.
I was suffering a little buyers remorse when I picked up the Idol, knowing they are not an easy fish to keep. I'm definitely a little more optimistic now that he's eating and more relaxed.
I was talking to Robert at King Ed a few years ago and he was telling me the '3' milestones of new fish:
A fish will die within 3 days due to capture and shipping.
A fish will die within 3 weeks if he does not start eating
A fish will die within 3 months if he was captured using cyanide.
So almost two weeks in and I think I passed the first two. Still a lot can go wrong, but so far so good.
Good Luck with your Idol!
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