FOTW Moorish Idol

[ryebread]

Sounds pretty interesting bdhough.
Any chance of you getting photos of it to share with us soon? I couldn't imagine having to feed my fish 5-6 times a day.........whew. That would make for and interesting life......
My wife: So what did you to today honey?
RyeBread: Well.......I got up at 4:00am and fed Maury. Then I went back to sleep for a few hours and got back up at 8:00am to feed Maury again. I had to go to work at ten and then I came home for lunch to feed Maury at 1:00pm......went back to work until 6:00pm and raced home afterward to feed Maury (he was starving). I then started preparing Maury's late night snack so that I didn't have to do it in the middle of the night. I can't wait to get back up at 4:00am to feed him again.........we're best friends.
My wife: You're sick, I want a divorce.
RyeBread: (muttering under my breath) At least Maury will never leave me.

 

[lionstorm]

Originally posted by RyeBread
RyeBread: (muttering under my breath) At least Maury will never leave me.
**Maury floating upside down next day**
RyeBread:
jk.
although 6 times a day is a bit much.

 

[bdhough]

Well for a 6 year old moorish idol as good as this one looks.....
Whatever would make him happy.
I unfortunately don't have a camera. Its on my list of things for graduation.....
Hmmm. Find the most perfect picture of an idol you can and youll get the idea.

 

[smokinstarfish]

An LFS by my house recently got in seveal idols. A 14-year-old kid told me they'd be fine for my 55-gal and tried selling it to me. How can they allow this practice?

 

[ophiura]

(Cut and pasted this from another post of mine, got a cold, and too bummed to write it out again ).

[hr]
This is my experience with a Moorish Idol, which arrived at the LFS I worked at in a shipment they were asked to receive due to weather delays.
It arrived. Owner said: "It will be dead, soon."
Week ended. Moorish idol alive.
Next few weeks, same story.
Moorish Idol eats everything put into the tank...nibbles on LR, brine, any frozen diet sponge based or not, nori, even pellets and flakes.
But owner keeps the mantra: "it will be dead, soon"
Months pass. System crashes. Idol survives. Eats everything. Looks fantastic.
More months pass and one owner of the store realizes, well, heck, might as well design a display around it because this one is a survivor.
Idol put in with Majestic angel. Idol beats the crap out of it, and any other fish put in with it.
Eats like a champ. You name it.
Other owner still says, "it will be dead, soon."
One day, over a year later.
Idol dead.
Sponge diets and all. Contant fresh supply of LR and all. Eating anything and everything. Fed multiple times a day. Surviving system crash that took out far tougher fish. Beating the crap out of others. One healthy Idol. Dead, like nearly all the others.
One owner was right.
Please do not get one.

[hr]
(and proof that keeping one 6 months still isn't reason to get too used to keeping it longer)

 

[terminus est]

I thought pot was green??? I am so confused
Great FOTW thread. I think more emphasis needs to be placed on people not getting one though heheh. I definately aggree that some LFSs are committing crimes and wish there was some place to report them to. So far I have not seen my LFS do anything of this caliber but one day when I see one I might just play dumb for a few minutes....

 

[smokinstarfish]

I should go back there and tear it up with them about their boy pushing Idols. But it's legal, so what can you do? The tank was totally overstocked with fish, too. There were more than I could count in an 80 gal.
After getting all these fish in at once, how could this tank have been cycled for such an abrupt bio load? I went back there again a week ago, and more than a third of all the fish were gone, either dead, or sold out to soon be dead anyway.
More emphasis must be placed on us as fish keepers, abstaining from certain species.
I don't want to be a kettle calling the teapot but...

 

[eaglephot]

Thanks Thomas. I totally agree with you. They should be kept in the wild. However, I purchased mine because it was at a LFS. I would NEVER have taken one direct from the ocean. It would not last at the LFS. I am hoping that it will last sometime in my system. Thanks again for the info.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by Eaglephot
Thanks Thomas. I totally agree with you. They should be kept in the wild. However, I purchased mine because it was at a LFS. I would NEVER have taken one direct from the ocean. It would not last at the LFS. I am hoping that it will last sometime in my system. Thanks again for the info.

THe argument, unfortunately, is that by buying it, another will be collected. The logic being that if they weren't purchased, or if they died at the LFS, they wouldn't be imported. Now someone may have bought it for sure from your LFS...but buying a wild caught fish from and LFS is equivalent, IMO, to collecting it directly from the ocean. Except that fewer would probably die is you did collect them directly.

Anyway, you have the fish and that is that. Best of luck, but remember, a year plus is the success mark. Not a few months

 

[cwgibson]

i got mine from a friend that bought it (after i told them not to) and her fish were picking at it. she eats like a horse!

 

[lion_crazz]

Getting an idol to eat is not the issue with them. The issue is sustaining them for the long term. I do wish you luck though.