The Moorish Idol Thread - Page 4

tanya72806 · #76 03/11/2007, 07:30 PM

WOW very impressive have you ever done tests on the water for ammonia and nitrats and nitrites before just wondering ?

Paul B · #77 03/12/2007, 04:22 AM

I have never tested the water for anything except salinity. If it has worked for all of those years, how bad could it be?
At the beginning of this hobby we couldn't buy water so we collected it, I still do
Paul

rivan · #78 03/20/2007, 02:58 PM

I'm glad I found this thread.

Just to add to this general knowledge about 15 years ago I got a Moorish Idol of about 5" from a local LFS. It had come from prety direct from Hawaii and was really Fat.

I kept it in a 120Gal tank with a few other Tangs for over 6 years. A Great eater and easy to keep. I only lost it when I got a parasite which wiped out half the fish.

So I've always been puzzled when people say they don't last.

rivan · #79 03/20/2007, 03:01 PM

I forgot to add. That Idol Ate moslty Brine Shrimp and pellet food. Once a week I fed romaine lettuce. The only thing I did which was special is that I used a feeding ring which only the idol could get his snout into to get the pellets. And I used a brine shrimp cone.

achillesheel · #80 03/20/2007, 07:21 PM

my two guys. had them almost three weeks and the small one has recently started eating "well". the larger one picks on rocks all day and has started showing interest in prepared foods.

yoboyjdizz · #81 03/25/2007, 06:30 PM

Was wondering if anybody is collecting sponge or know if you can buy sponge online that your guys moorish idols are taking an interest in?

yoboyjdizz · #82 03/28/2007, 05:08 PM

anyone?

Paul B · #83 03/28/2007, 05:42 PM

I collect it but I am a little far from you.
Paul

Paul B · #84 03/28/2007, 05:42 PM

I collect it but I am a little far from you.
Paul

BlueNWhite · #85 03/28/2007, 08:40 PM

Here is a picture of mine. This picture was taken about a month ago. He's been in my tank for 5 or 6 months now.

danskim · #86 03/28/2007, 10:01 PM

Cool stuff and and nice pictures...

Tagareef · #87 03/28/2007, 11:42 PM

Here's my juvenile Idol...

I've had him for about a month now. He won't eat anything but Spectrum pellets!

Hope he stays healthy.

Luis

LIReefer · #88 03/29/2007, 10:23 AM

Are you guys not quarantining these fish? I see a lot of photos of these already in established tanks and the folks only having these for a very short period.

I have a sick one that's been in quarantine for about six weeks, eating but not really improving. The pics that i'm seeing here show extremely healthy looking idols. Is it better to get them in the reef tank as quickly as possible?

cthetoy · #89 03/29/2007, 10:53 AM

Tagareef. Your Idol looks a little skinny but at least it is eating. How often do you feed it? I feed my Idol 3 to 4 times a day with pellets like yours and ocassionally some mysis and clam on the half shell. I think Paul B feeds his Idol a few times a day as well

Tagareef · #90 03/29/2007, 11:31 AM

cthetoy...it must be an optical illusion!! He's definitely got a gut on him and doesn't have the "gaunt" look I've seen on other idols. My autofeeder goes off 4 times a day and occasionally frozen treats in between. I feed nori a few times a week and he can't get enough of that. He holds his own against 6 tangs, regal and flagfin angels and a tusk at the "nori feeding station". Especially since he's only a little over 3 inches long!

LIReefer, My lfs quarantines there fish and this batch of idols was "held captive" for almost a month before they were allowed to leave the store. They were all eating well by this time. I put him in my frag tank for a few days but seemed lethargic and didn't eat much. So I put him in my 180. He immediately perked up and started feeding with the rest of the gang. Maybe he was lonely and needed the competition for food.

This idol has definitely moved to the top of my "favorite fish" list. These fish have so much character and aren't timid at all. Another thing that's cool is that the threadfin at the tip of his dorsal will grow to about 2" and he'll lose it somehow. (Probably from fin nipping) But in a few days he grows it back! It's amazing how fast the fin regenerates.

Celso Suguimoto · #91 04/13/2007, 08:23 PM

I said good bye to my zoanthus

Celso Suguimoto · #92 04/13/2007, 08:23 PM

I said good bye to my zoanthus

John Dawe · #93 04/13/2007, 09:00 PM

Wellcome to the world of feeder corals for you MI's, butterfly's and angelfish.

Bebo77 · #94 04/14/2007, 12:40 AM

here is my idol.. he just started eating zoas this week.. errrrrr

Mike de Leon · #95 04/14/2007, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bebo77
here is my idol.. he just started eating zoas this week.. errrrrr

Dou you QT your fish? I see that you have an Achilles....

blueregaltang · #96 04/14/2007, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by yoboyjdizz
Was wondering if anybody is collecting sponge or know if you can buy sponge online that your guys moorish idols are taking an interest in?

Hi every one, Hi Paul B
It's been long since I've last wrote about the sucessful experience I had/have in feeding the Zanclus with sponge, first masked in a paste of which I gave the formula here and after with fresh sponge which now thrives in the reef tank, despite the 10 or more Celcius degres up diference from de temperature in which it lives in the rocky beaches of Portugal close to my place and where I colect it.
It so hapens that a close relative of this sponge inhabits the North Carolina coast, namely at the Beaufort area, please see this link
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=001...RGE&origin=ESA
It is Hymeniacidon heliophila and like Hymeniacidon sanguinea, it lives also on the intertidal zone.
Although in Portuguese, which may be a good oportunity for you to learn our magnificent language spoken by more than 600 million people, you may read or alt least see the entire story concerning my experience and now also the experience of others like Celso Sugimoto and Matias Gomes, both from Brasil, with the Zanclus and the sponge, what it looks like, etc...Please do not hesitate to register and write in English as most people will understand and I will reply or help since I also translate with permission, many articles from American aquarists.
Go, have a look here:

http://www.reefforum.net/showthread.php?t=5012

Kind Regards
Pedro Nuno (BlueRegalTang)

Paul B · #97 04/14/2007, 07:31 PM

Pedro, nice to hear from you again. Tat is interesting about the sponge. The sponge I collect in NY does not live for five munutes in a tropical tank. I have to freeze it right away. It is not a problem because I can collect all I could ever need.
Thanks for the site.
Paul

Covey · #98 04/14/2007, 08:00 PM

I never QT fish including the Idol.

Also didn't treat for ich it went away on its own.

(duck)

blueregaltang · #99 04/15/2007, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paul B
Pedro, nice to hear from you again. Tat is interesting about the sponge. The sponge I collect in NY does not live for five minutes in a tropical tank. I have to freeze it right away. It is not a problem because I can collect all I could ever need.
Thanks for the site.
Paul

Hi Paul, Hi everyone
Thank you for your kind words.
Now speaking about the sponge which is a close relative of the one I collect over here, which thrives in the reef tank refugium and the main tank it self, this is what it looks like. This one lives in Brasil close the Rio de Janeiro but it also lives at least on the East Coast of USA and should be easy to find and collect

http://acd.ufrj.br/labpor/5-Imagens/Rio/Pgrj01gm.htm

http://acd.ufrj.br/labpor/5-Imagens/Rio/Pgrj02gm.htm

It can be found on the intertidal zone surrounded by mussels, debris, algae, very similar to what happens with Hymeniacidon sanguinea that I collect here on the rocky beaches of northern Portugal, please se my images at my thread in reefforum.net here http://www.reefforum.net/showthread.php?t=5012. It is soft, kind of rubber like, and you may remove it using a curved knife. If you put it against a rock in the refugium of your marine system, it will adhere to it within two or three days and starts to grow, at least the Hymeniacidon sanguinea does. My friend in Brasil Matias Gomes, collects it and some more species and uses them to feed is Zanclus.

Here please find some information of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Phyl_porife.htm

Here an article from the Chicago University http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi...007972903Guest

and here very detailed with images http://graysreef.noaa.gov/mcfall.html

Paul, at the link above you may read that the red sponge you collected, which the Zanclus did not accept, is probably Red Beard Sponge (Microciona prolifera)

If I was successful with Hymeniacidon sanguinea here in Portugal and Matias Gomes with Hymeniacidon heliophila in Ilha Bela Brasil, you should also be successful with Hymeniacidon heliophila in USA, so give it a try.

Well there is lot more but it is not the time for me to update information from where I left it since I last wrote on the previous thread, any way if you visit my thread http://www.reefforum.net/showthread.php?t=5012 you will see a lot already. I will try to obtain more information about the sponge that you may find locally on the shores of USA, which is very similar to the one I find here in Portugal and use, and post it here to help you Paul and any one interested.

I really hope this helps. According to the investigation I made, the Zanclus natural food is composed of 85 or more % of sponge and the infauna living in it. Also it is may belief that the collagen contained in the tissues of the sponge is crucial to the good health of the Zanclus. As you may read here Collagen plays a very important role http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collagen and the lack of it may cause serious health problems in living organisms.

Well Paul, just to finish for the time being, why don't you join us at reefforum.net (please use your Name Paul Baldassano) as I deed by joining reefcentral community with whom I share what I know.
By the way why don't you all join us as many of us deed with reefcentral (please use your real names). After all reefcentral and reefforum.net are partner forums. You may writte in English since almost every one is able to understand and I'm always arround (I'm a moderator) to translate if need be, as I do with many articles from American aquarists/experts.

Kind regards
Pedro Nuno (Blueregaltang)

Paul B · #**100** 04/15/2007, 11:33 AM

Pedro, you are correct, the sponge that I did collect that Idol's do not eat is "red beard sponge" It grows right along and some times on top of the other sponge that Idol's eat that I can't identify and is not in any of the pictures on the site you posted. It looks more like mushrooms that you would see on a rotten tree only it's orange red. I can collect loads of it now that I have found the location. It also only grows a few inches under the water which makes me think it is also photosynthetic. I have never seen it at the bottom but only on floating docks where it can live submerger only by a few inches. I don't know if it grows in the winter as these docks are removed from the water for cleaning then.
I went on the web site you suggested but it is in Spanish and even though I am of Italian decent, the only word I know in Spanish is Ricardo Montalban

Paul