Holy crap... just ordered a pair of moorish idols!!

A

arlene1995

Guest
Wow! That looks amazing! It is great that the Idols are at least eating SOMETHING, I think what GrouperGenius said is a great idea...
P.S. That FTS is my new desktop background! LOL =D
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by Arlene1995
http:///forum/post/2802252
Wow! That looks amazing! It is great that the Idols are at least eating SOMETHING, I think what GrouperGenius said is a great idea...
P.S. That FTS is my new desktop background! LOL =D

They both ate well today, as I fed an oyster and a mussel today and left them in the tank for about 5 hours. What I'm noticing is that the stronger of the two is harassing the weaker every time he goes to eat. Actually the one has become a bully, not only with the other idol, but with my naso tang too.
I did try the rubberband food to the mussel trick and it actually worked... until one of my other fish and snatched the entire cube out of the mussel. But this was the first time that the idols showed an interest in a frozen food.
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
This is my tip for getting butterflies to eat. Seeing how the idols love bivalves, might work.
You'll need a large square sponge. The type that are prefilters for Mag Drives are the best. Something like this:

Next, get a bag of clams. You want without shell. Ocean Nutrition Clams come in a bag or in packaged cubes. You want the bag, since the piece will be larger.

Then thaw out the clams and then with a pen, poke each of the clams into different parts of the sponge, just enough so the current won't take them, but the fish can get 'em. You probably will have to find a way to secure the sponge. This is way the prefilter is the best, as you can just jam it onto a piece of branch rock or load some rubble rock into the hole.
After you do it one or two times, you'll get the hang of it, and you'll probably be able to feed them faster with this method.
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by AquaKnight
http:///forum/post/2802624
This is my tip for getting butterflies to eat. Seeing how the idols love bivalves, might work.
You'll need a large square sponge. The type that are prefilters for Mag Drives are the best. Something like this:

Next, get a bag of clams. You want without shell. Ocean Nutrition Clams come in a bag or in packaged cubes. You want the bag, since the piece will be larger.

Then thaw out the clams and then with a pen, poke each of the clams into different parts of the sponge, just enough so the current won't take them, but the fish can get 'em. You probably will have to find a way to secure the sponge. This is way the prefilter is the best, as you can just jam it onto a piece of branch rock or load some rubble rock into the hole.
After you do it one or two times, you'll get the hang of it, and you'll probably be able to feed them faster with this method.

I'm going to try this.
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by Scotts
http:///forum/post/2804102
Your tank is one of the coolest things I have ever seen!!!

Thx.

Well, the stronger of the two started eating frozen food tonight. It was almost as if it just realized that the particles in the water were edible. It just went crazy and started eating everything. The other one is still much more timid.
 
kjr_trig

kjr_trig

Active Member
Originally Posted by crimzy
http:///forum/post/2804157
Thx.

Well, the stronger of the two started eating frozen food tonight. It was almost as if it just realized that the particles in the water were edible. It just went crazy and started eating everything. The other one is still much more timid.
That's great news, hopefully the other will follow suit and join the fun.
 
myerst22

myerst22

Member
Hello. Happy to hear your idols are eating. I am concerned about the other fish you have with them as they are aggressive and most likely stressing them a bit. Especially that big ray swimming around. The ray seems to be looking for more open sand space in that display. He looks huge and would never find himself with that much LR in it's natural environment. For such a strict grazer as Idols are, to have a big Ray and Lionfish swim by them with force them to worry about safety rather than grazing. In the wild they rarely are looking over their backs but concentrate on finding their next grazing site. Hopefully they will be able to adjust to a far different environment then they are used to.
Rubberbanding food items to the LR is a great idea to onriate feeding of frozen foods. IMO i would remove the Ray to ease the stress level of the Idols. Also the Ray seems to not have enough open sand space for him. Though this could be just from the picture. Continued luck and keep us posted. Tim
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by myerst22
http:///forum/post/2805042
Hello. Happy to hear your idols are eating. I am concerned about the other fish you have with them as they are aggressive and most likely stressing them a bit. Especially that big ray swimming around. The ray seems to be looking for more open sand space in that display. He looks huge and would never find himself with that much LR in it's natural environment. For such a strict grazer as Idols are, to have a big Ray and Lionfish swim by them with force them to worry about safety rather than grazing. In the wild they rarely are looking over their backs but concentrate on finding their next grazing site. Hopefully they will be able to adjust to a far different environment then they are used to.
Rubberbanding food items to the LR is a great idea to onriate feeding of frozen foods. IMO i would remove the Ray to ease the stress level of the Idols. Also the Ray seems to not have enough open sand space for him. Though this could be just from the picture. Continued luck and keep us posted. Tim
I'll admit that the idols came in smaller than I expected. However I disagree with most of what you've stated. First, the other fish in there have had no effect on the idols grazing. They graze constantly. If anything, they have been less apt to compete when fed but they don't seem to mind the ray or lion at all. The ray and lion aren't competing for the same food as the idols and haven't made any aggressive moves towards them at all. It's the crazy, piggish tangs that make it more difficult for these guys to compete.
Personally, I think that a 96" x 36" footprint is fine for a 10" ray. The picture may not give you an accurate reflection of the dimensions, though, because the sandbed is a couple inches below the top of the stand. So where it may look like the rocks come almost to the front of the tank, they actually stop at least 15" from the front.
As I've stated previously, part of the problem with ordering fish online is that you don't see what you are getting. I wish these idols were another 1-2" long. Just so you know, I would never get rid of my ray. I've had him for over 4 years now. Actually, I will be getting another ray for the tank. If necessary, I could reaquascape. I'll determine that if the need arises.
Thanks for your opinions.
 
A

arlene1995

Guest
Dang!!! That is FABULOUS news!
Maybe the fact that the one Idol is eating, it will kinda help coax the other one into eating. Good luck!
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by Floridacatfish
http:///forum/post/2805247
That's awesome that the one idol is now eating frozen foods. Hope the second one follows suit~
Unfortunately the second one will not be following suit. I found him dead when I got home from work today. That one just never wanted to start feeding and, the last couple days, the other idol was picking on him. It's weird that the only real aggressor in the tank was the other MI. I figured that, since they are schooling fish, they'd do better in a pair. But I guess that a pair does not exactly constitute a school.
On a brighter note, though, the remaining idol is now eating everything I'm offering. He's having no problem competing for food and, for the time-being, I seem to be out of the woods with this one. I think that he'll do extremely well from here on out.
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2805941
So do you think you and the MI will be satisfied with just one in the tank?
If you're asking if I'll be getting another, no I won't. I figured that they would do better in a pair but as the one became more comfortable, he became more aggressive towards the weaker one and actually chased him away from the food.
I've read mixed reviews about keeping them in pairs but I wouldn't do another pair.
 
m0nk

m0nk

Active Member
Wow, sorry to hear about your one idol. I'll keep my fingers crossed on the other, but it sounds like it's healthy and happy.
 
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