My moorish idol loves nori, whole clams, and masstick.

[Hal3134]

I'll have had my moorish idol for about 2 months. He just loves nori. He's one of the first fish to the algae clip every time I put in a fresh sheet. I go through 3-4 sheets a day, but I also have 6 tangs in the tank with the idol: yellow, hippo, powder blue, desjardini sailfin, tomini, and naso.

My idol was in the LFS display tank (not for sale) prior to me getting him. They took him out of the tank when the other moorish idol in the tank started to pick on him, and made him available for sale. I put my idol through the tank transfer quarantine process with Prazi but no other drugs. My LFS said he was the best idol they've ever seen. They had him (and the other idol) direct shipped from somewhere without going through a wholesaler.

My idol loves to eat frozen brine and small PE mysis. He struggles with the larger PE mysis. My idol is 3-4 inches in length. He also eats clams (frozen whole, then opened prior to dropping into the tank) and Masstick. He ignores frozen bloodworms and roe. I've seen him eat a singular Ocean Nutrition flake, but nothing regular. I haven't seen him eat any Reef Nutrition TDO Chromaboost pellets as yet. I have the pellets in an Eheim feeder set to dispense at 9 am and 4 pm. I see the idol mouth/nip at calanus, but the food is so small it's difficult to see whether he's actually ingesting it. I can't find any of the angel/sponge formula frozen near me.

 

[Doctorgori]

I think 80% of the issue with idols is getting a good one that eats in the 1st place …
100% agree with the nori, mine loves the Julian Sprung stuff …
I also suspect 2 keys to long term success are room & diet

 

[Tcook]

After all that reading no pic???? Good for you. Sounds like you got the perfect idol.

 

[Hal3134]

@Tcook here you go. My bad. Please pardon the cyano. I've been adjusting my feeding upwards for the idol and may be over doing it.

 

[Doctorgori]

What corals are in the tank, I’m asking because I need to start stocking his tank and the last time I had one (when not fed for 2 days) it ate up all the fleshy stuff: trachy’s, brains, Lords, et but left the zoas, torches, hammers and acros alone …

 

[Hal3134]

@Doctorgori Corals are multiple zoa's, green toadstool, blue mushrooms, blue stylophora, candy cane caulastrea, neon green caulastrea, duncan, and frogspawn. No signs of nipping as yet.

 

[Doctorgori]

@Doctorgori Corals are multiple zoa's, green toadstool, blue mushrooms, blue stylophora, candy cane caulastrea, neon green caulastrea, duncan, and frogspawn. No signs of nipping as yet.

TBH the one (I had) didn’t touch ANY of them until I went on vacation for a few days and depended on the auto feeder … When I came back he killed his “mate” and picked almost every LPS down to the skeleton …
You might be OK I would think if well fed…

 

[Joj]

Good stuff- love MI! The key as said above is room and eating (obviously). Been lucky with my 4 currently and 2 in the past. All mines are anything and everything from the start (nori, Lrs, ON flakes, pellets, NLS, clams, frozen, etc). Goes thru copper well too IME with copper safe.

I currently have 4 of them for 2 years now and hopefully they continue to do well. They have a hierarchy and bicker/chase each other about a couple of seconds with some quick chasing a couple times a day (they huddle together at night during sleep time though…lol). There is an alpha and then there is also a runt in the group (they were all same size in same tank at the LFS when I bought all 4 of them, thinking one or 2 might not make it). The Alpha doesn’t do any chasing and that’s why it has long streamer. The 2 smaller ones will bicker among each other to quickly establish hierarchy throughout the day but all eat well, even the runt and their is no chasing during feeding time.

In no way they are easy to keep but I’ve been fortunate with all the ones I got, they all ate great. Only stupid thing on my end caused their demised in the past was (velvet & high temp caused bacterial issue). At those time, I keep a single one at a time only for 8-10 months before the incidents.

My 4 are currently in a 500g (6x4x3). Prior to the upgrade to the 500g, they were in a 80g lagoon (4x4x1) for 1 year when they where smaller (2.5”), they didn’t swim as much and bickered more often with the runt taking up space in a corner. The 4 are now b/w 4”-6” and swim all over because their is plenty of room and no territory to defend. I do feed nori heavily (2 sheets a day) since they are in with other hungry fishes and my auto feeder feeds 8 times daily with pellets .

 

[Doctorgori]

@Joj how big was your group at purchase?
I tried this twice:
1st time worked but they grew so fast a 75G got too small in very short order (back then you saw Gulf of California specimens I think and 3” idols were available)

2nd time: 2 paired and I had to remove the odd man out, then the male killed the mate

Does the alpha have the longest fin tendril?

 

[Hal3134]

It’s been 3 months now since I obtained my MI. He still chows on nori and brine shrimp, mysis shrimp if not too big, and Whole clams in the shell. Pellet and flake is still a no go.

 

[14 foot reef]

I believe mine is around 7 years old now and will eat anything I put in, pellets, flake, nori, Mysys, Blood worms. I haven't found anything he wont eat, except my corals !!!!!!

 

[Joj]

@Joj how big was your group at purchase?
I tried this twice:
1st time worked but they grew so fast a 75G got too small in very short order (back then you saw Gulf of California specimens I think and 3” idols were available)

2nd time: 2 paired and I had to remove the odd man out, then the male killed the mate

Does the alpha have the longest fin tendril?

Nose to tail was around 2.5 to 3” for the group. Grew fairly slow when they where separated into smaller tanks for QT and separation (10g, 20g, 46g, 80g). 1st time trying a group so I can’t say as prior to this, I only had individuals.

Yes, alpha has longest fin tendril and then so on and so forth with the rest from top to bottom of the ranking having no fin tendril at all. When they are were kept separately, each one had fins tendril as long as 7” waving in the water.