The Moorish Idol Thread

[Paul B]

Zfunk, why does your sump overflow? Bad design, it should never do that in a blackout. Didn't you get a generator this year too? You really have to fix that problem. I don't have a sump so it can't happen and I also have a generator. Can't you plumb the sump so that the flow stops when the water level drops an inch or so? or does it come from the bottom of your tank?

Chevy, a lot of people also think I am nuts for the way that I run my tank, NY water, asphalt rock, UG filter, live NYC mud etc.
Paul

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Sounds like your getting some back siphon from the tank as well. A easy fix for that is to drill a small hole in the return line, just below the water level in the tank. When the water goes below that line, it will suck in air and break the siphon. Hope that helps some.

[gofor100]

Tagging along...planning an extremely large tank with one of these beautiful fish as the center piece.

[zfunk007]

Yeah I did drill a hole in the return line a while ago but the algae growth must have clogged it. Another problem is that my sump is to small. Since I added the 110 fish only tank to my system the water volume is too much for the sump to handle (I have all 3 of my main tanks running together in the same system).

Today I added another sump to my system by drilling a 2" hole in my main sump and running it into a seperate 50 gallon rubbermaid container with a PVC pipe. Then I put a valve on it so that I could cut it off and do a quick water change if needed. Like I said the tank of the month kind of inspired me to do something like that. Interesting idea. Now I just have to drill some new holes into the return line so it won't keep sucking. Thanks for the advice guys .

All my fish survived the power outage. It lasted about 5 hours. Although since my water level was so low it killed a few of my small acropora frags near the surface that were exposed the whole time .

On a positive note my Regal Angel and Moorish Idol seem to be becoming buddies. They hang out alot together and both are huge pigs when eating. Very fun to watch these 2 beautiful (and seldom seen in the same tank I might add) fish swimming together.

Gofor100 thanks for the post. Keep us updated when you get your Idol.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Glad everything survived. Sounds like your having some fun down there. Good luck.

[LivingDeadFish]

Well i guess ill jump in for a swim.
my idol will be 2 in sept, very hardy fish in my exp. eats most foods, he didnt like the angle formula with sponge at all
neither did my last idol.
I cant tell you any secrets to successfully keeping one of these fish.
from exp, I can tell you to try an avoide things like this
power outtages are bad "duh". power outtages with 14" anemones = fatality.
I was told the power was off for about 10 hours, Im not sure of his condition before i got home, but i got to see my first idol dive right into my anemone as i ran into the room.
3 other fish vanished that day.
ok thats enough of the donts, here are a few of the things i do or have done and equip i have with my current idol.

received idol from lps, med large in size. 2 days till i saw him eat.(sick/blockage once did not see him eat for atleast 5 days recovered fine with no treatment).
95% of the food that i feed all my fish(8) is betta bits/tetra bits, same thing. the tetra bits fit in my auto feeder great, and that is set for twice a day now. about every 9 months ill buy some frozen brine, and or formula 2 and feed once or twice a month.
last year when i moved here, it took me 3 more months to move my tank. for that 3.5 months the only food they got was tetra bits 1 time a day, i had to go back and refill the feeder every 2 weeks. the one time i was a few days late i lost my 10 month old clam im sure he was dinner for many of the fish.
I bought one 200 gal bucket of i/o salt this year, and used most of it when i moved my tank here, i ran out about 3 months ago, i try to change about 20 gal every 2 or 3 months.
my tank is a 5 ft 110 gal, 30 gal sump, one compartment of bioballs, 90 gallon skimmer, 680 wt pc\halide. 90 lbs live rock, 4-5" of esv sand, an 8 fish.
and battleing a hair alge problem.
thats all for now. if ya have a Q, just ask

ldf

[zfunk007]

LivingDeadFish, is your name a reference to the Rob Zombie song "Living Dead Girl"? Thats great that you've had your Idol for 2 years! Sorry to hear about your first one .

Here are some recent pictures of mine:











In the second picture he is eating that Angel Formula with Sponge I got him. I adjusted some of my powerheads and inflows so that the pieces of food go to that middle spot each time I feed them and him and the Regal know just where to go to get it.

Paul, I recently got some other kind of sponge while diving, this one is bright orange. I froze it gave it to them last night and the Idol just DEVOURED it. The Regal seemed to like it as well . They are good buds now it seems. Nice to see these 2 in the same tank. Anyone else have any updates?

[Paul B]

"Z" that Idol looks nice and healthy, not skinny and has a nice dorsal fin. Your last picture almost reminds me of Tahiti. They stand out so much against the corals.
I am going boating today and I will be going to the tide pools to do some collecting. The tide goes down about ten feet here and some tide poold are hundreds of yards long. I collect these big clumps of mussels with associated mud and crabs. The amount of amphipods I get out of there is enormous. I try to feed the Idol as diverse as I can get. Unfortunately, yesterday I left the frozen food out of the freezer. Do you know what that smells like?
Paul

[LivingDeadFish]

zfunk007
My first idol , i did everything in the tank just for that fish. made food, changed water often, took out mean fish, test kits, more rocks and read too much.
week one " it will be dead in a week return it or kill it now"
week two " they dont last past a month"
one month " they just drop dead at any time"
an so on. an so on....
later i got mad at the closed mindedness of some people an erased every post and bit of info i ever put up about idols.
i have not posted about this fish in about 3 years, i changed my id, an am still alittle touchie on that subject.
now im livingdeadfish and thats what i keep in my tank.
rob zombie indeed may have helped me pick the name.

those are great pictures, someday, perhaps ill have a camera.
new skimmer and a reactor are higher on my list.

paul, its been many years for me, but i dont think it would be very easy for anyone to forget that smell

must be nice living close to the water, i saw the ocean once 25 years ago.

ldf

[Paul B]

LivingDeadFish, I have been to many places but I prefer to go to places that have an ocean. I was stationed in Colorado for a few monthes and although mountains are beautiful I need an ocean.
As a matter of fact I will be going out in an hour boating and meeting other boaters. Anyway to each his own.
Luckilly, I found my frozen food the next day and most of it was still in those little square plastic frozen pouches so it was not as bad as it could have been. Years ago (about 45) we went clamming out on the end of Long Island and we got about 100 clams. We forgot them in the trunk of the Oldsmobile for a week.
We had to junk the car. You could not get near it.
As for the topic of moorish Idols you may have read earlier that I just dove with them in Tahiti and I have an observation. They swim in mated pairs (I think they are mated) and one finds the food while the other one trails behind. It may be that the dominant one, which I assume is the male, finds the food and the female may be the one that does not last as long in a tank. Of course I may be way off on this but many or most of them only last a couple of weeks and do not feed or take a long time to start eating. They may do better in mated pairs in huge public aquarium type tanks. As you know, we can keep them alive but none of them look as healthy or vibrant as the Idols I saw in the sea. That is true with most fish but more so with Idols. What we consider a nice fat healthy fish in captivity is really in very poor health and very stressed. In the sea they are not very skittish and you can almost pet them while they feed on sponge. Their dorsal fin is very thick which I have never seen in captivity. Look at the fin on this one I observed in Tahiti. You do not see any like that in captivity.
Paul

[Green Thumb]

That is a realy nice plump MI. Nice fin too!

[zfunk007]

LivingDeadFish, thanks for comming out of your seclusion to post on this thread. I made this thread for people like you. So we could share our experiences. To hell with the critics! If people like us don't try to keep Moorish Idol's in captivity then it will never be done. At least we are trying and giving them the best we can give them and learning alot in the process.

You should certainly get a camera cause I'd love to see some pictures of your Idol.

Thanks for the comments Paul. He certainly does seem to be doing well. I think since I have been able to feed him 3 times a day for the past 2 weeks or so he has become fatter and happier. I plan on getting an automatic feeder soon so I won't have to worry so much if I miss a feeding.

That story about the clams is awful. I couldn't imagine having to trash a car because of some clams!!

I have no doubt that my Idol's dorsal fin will eventually become just as long and full as the ones in the wild. There isn't anyone in my tank that would nip it off I don't think and it just keeps getting longer and longer. Time will tell.

[las]

bump

[LivingDeadFish]

Just a quick thought, after looking over my system specs, Perhaps keeping an idol for any amount of time just requires alot of o2 in the water.
I have always had 1 chamber of bioballs on my system, and i would think that would add more o2 than just about any skimmer or over flow, which i have both of those also.

With the ease i have had taking care of these fish, perhaps something like high o2 concentration is all they really need.

i have done nothing special for this idol and 95% of his diet that i see him eat is a fresh water food for bettas.
lately i have been feeding 3-4 times a day, and some frozen brine twice already this month, i think ill do that again today, my idol bit me last time i feed brine, kinda hurt i had to check for blood

anyway just my thoughts on o2

ldf

[zfunk007]

Interesting thought Livingdeadfish. I know they need alot of o2 in the water or they become asphyxiated quickly.

I think that ALOT of water flow is essential also. Cause it keeps the oxygen flowing and keeps your Idol in shape . I have a grand total of 6 powerheads in my main tank along with the 2 water returns. So there is a ton of flow. I think it helps.

[Paul B]

Zfunk, your Idol does seem to look very well and in time maybe he will be as healthy as the ones in the sea, I hope so.
Take care.
Paul

[zfunk007]

Well I tried some new food today. Gave the Idol some frozen squid. He ate it, although he didn't seem to go "crazy" like he does for most of the other food I give him. Just trying to further diversify his food intake.

He has had some small ich spots here and there on him since I put him in. Finally in the past week or so he seems to have just about none at all. From my experience working at this LFS it seems like fish build up an immunity from ich after having somewhat mild cases for a long time. Anyone else notice this? Maybe the garlic helped also.

[tdude294]

do you think i could keep an idol in a 20g? i don't think so, but it never hurts to ask

[LukFox]

Zfunk, I had this thread in mind when I was following the idols in Maui. All of them that I saw did have a slightly raised but still noticable bar/bone (only really noticeable if you're actually looking for it though) going through the length of their body. It wasnt a pinched look though, and since I made sure if all of the ones I saw had it, I suppose it's normal and nothing to worry about.


Here's a couple pics I took down there.

[Paul B]

LukFox, nice pictures, I dove in Maui many years ago and I don't remember if I saw and moorish Idols while there.
Idols really need to be fed a few times a day. All fish would benefit from that. I am not home much so I finally got an automatic feeder so at least I can throw some pellets in there a few times a day until I get home and feed some better food.
I hooked up the feeder to my Idol feeding dish. It dispenses food twice a day into a funnel that goes down to a dish which the Idol checks out about every thirty seconds. I have to go out to the Hamptons this weekend and since I will be staying there at least the Idol can have some pellets to eat. I will be at a wedding on the beach so I will be eating better than him.
Take care.
Paul
This is an old picture, that dish is now all covered with coraline algae and the Idol is a lot larger.

[LukFox]

Maybe we went to different parts of the island or something, because wherever there was water breaking on rocks, they were there - always. Easy to find them and there were many . I just wish of the 27 pictures I took of them, more turned out - lol. I always love your pictures btw, Paul.

[Paul B]

Luk, I probably saw many of them as I dove on four of the Hawaiian Islands but it was 33 years ago, almost 300 dives ago, and I can't remember what I had for breakfast.
I did not have an underweater camera then as they were very expensive and I was on my honeymoon. My bride (who I am still married to) had other ideas as to what we would do. We still dive quite a bit, we went to Tahiti last and this year we are going to dive the western Mediteranian but unfortunately, there will be no moorish Idols there, mainly ruins of ancient civilizations.
As I said, sometimes my wife (who works out a lot) has other Ideas of destinations than I do. But at least I talked her out of England and Germany. Talk about no moorish Idols, there is not even any water to speak of there, much less dive in.
Take care.
Paul

[zfunk007]

LukFox, thanks for posting! Do you actually have an Idol in one of your tanks? Also those are great pics! I'm jealous. Someday I will dive with the Idols. I'd like to even do a study on them someday if I ever get a chance. I'm toying with the idea of getting a marine biology degree (although I don't know if I can handle the classes) so we'll see. But I think studying their behavior would be very interesting.

The Idol in your pictures LukFox looks just like mine . Picking constantly. And the fairly long dorsal fin. I'm glad to hear that the bar/bone is normal even in the wild. Mines has gotten less and less noticeable as time has gone on and now you can hardly see it.

He seems to be doing extremely well. The spectrum pellets appear to be his favorite food now although as always he will eat anything I put in. I'll post some more pictures in the comming month to mark his progress.

LukFox, if you have more pics, please do post .

Hey Paul, you could always dive in Loch Ness I watched a show once where they dove in Loch Ness looking for the monster and found these STRANGE coral like creatures on the bottom. Talk about weird.

Also Paul, you need to take some updated pictures!! Or get someone with a digital camera to come over and take them for you so we can see your Idol in some recent pictures. If I lived close by I would do it!

tdude294, If in fact you are asking a serious question, then no I would NEVER keep an Idol in a 20 gallon tank. You would most certainly be comdemning him to death. But thanks for asking.

I'm taking a trip to the keys this weekend and I'll be gone for 3-4 days. We are doing a little diving and "collecting" trip. I've got an underwater camera so I'll post some pictures when I get back. Thanks for the posts everyone. Keep them comming!

[Paul B]

Zfunk, I know about the old pictures. I have a digital camera and I guess I will have to take some updates. I'm going to a wedding now out in the Hamptons so I will get a lot of use out of my digital camera.
Take care.
Paul
ps, I like the idea of diving in Loch Ness. The visability is the same as I am used to, about a foot.

[LukFox]

I dont have a moorish idol, although one day when there has been more longterm successes with them, I definently will. I've been following this thread and I wish all of you guys the best of luck with your idols!

More pics


and a nice pic of the dorsal fin, lol