Morish Idol II

[tangs]

Originally posted by daisy
All those fish in a 40-gal? Do you have a fuge? You must be incredibly vigilant with water changes and the like. I'm in awe.

yup, 40G with a euroreef. never had water perameter problem. 20G water changes, bi-monthly. have to say, a very low maintanance set up.

 

[tangs]

Originally posted by ophiura
Their survival rate is one of the worst of any fish in the hobby...probably less than 10%. And many live a year, eating and doing well, and die for no apparent reason

You know... It's like groundhog day when ever someone say the word "morish". heheheh same ole repeats over and over again. Unfortunately, i wont have my morish and the rest of the other fishes for much longer to prove success... Just sold my entire set up this week

I will difinately have 1 if not 2 morish in the new 260G custom i'm currently putting together.
by the way, have you ever had a morish? or are you just carrying on what you hear from failures?

 

[tangs]

Originally posted by NM reef
ophiura's asesment is right on the mark....they are not a fish that has a good track record in captivity. There are a few that make it...but the vast majority survive less than a year.
It is kewl to see one doing well and I certainly wish you all the best...at the same time it needs to be noted that your success is the exception and not the rule.

:notsure: who makes your rules?

 

[nm reef]

Originally posted by Tangs
:notsure: who makes your rules?
Mother nature I suppose...a search for general information about moorish idols will provide far more negative experiences than your positive one. Success with these fish is the exception ...and I suppose you should be congradulated...as well as wished continued success...but...more often than not these fish don't adjust well to captivity and there are numerous sources that indicate they can be very difficult to keep.Now I'm sure you are convinced that you have established that they "can" be kept...but for any others out there that may decide to attempt one based on your experience I'd urge them to search on-line as well as on this site for additional information other than yours and compare results. I'm confident that the majority of the information available will strongely indicate they are very difficult to keep and seldom survive long in captivity.

 

[ophiura]

Yes, I worked with a Moorish at an LFS (which did not sell them but ended up with one that we refused to sell because of their poor survival rate).
It ate everything, was totally babied. Fresh LR, any food it wanted. Ate everything and anything. Beat the crap out of every other fish we tried to put in. Survived tank crashes that took out far "tougher" fish. And died, for no apparent reason, a year later....as many seem to do.
Please lose the attitude with the "groundhog day, same old posts, and your rules"...you are not the only one who has tried some of these fish and 9 months is not all that long. It is clear that it is not the norm to get them to survive long term in a hobbyist system. Best of luck in the larger tank...they'll need all the grazing room they can get. That is a good plan. Hopefully you will get lucky again.

 

[tangmaster]

Hey guys..lay off!! One guy who has had GREAT luck with the beautiful MOORISH IODL! CONGRATS!!
I am from NC. I just visited Maui, Hawaii on march 11. The first thing I saw after getting off the plane was a 200 gallon CLOSED SYSTEM. FOr those of you who don't know. "CLosed" is a system that does NOT run off ocean water.
This tank was full of yellow Kona Gold Tangs and Moorish Idols which I saw first hand in the wild. I spoke with several guys who were curators at the MAUI aquarium, where there were hundreds of MOORISH IDOLS, They said these fish DO have a bad rep. for survivability but the trick is in acclimating and feeding. MUST MUST MUST MUST have greens every single day of their lives. They will eat anything, but something about the greens that keep them happy. They said the fact that some die after a year is that people lose the "new fish" excitement and fail to accomodate for this animal. It definitely WILL NOT tolerate being neglected! I saw plenty in tanks 100g and up. Even saw some in a FREAKIN OUTDOOR POND system!!
I gasped when I saw that. Average temp in maui is appox. 80 degrees, they can do that. Again....hats off to you. They said the same thing about my school of Achiiles and yellows.
15 mixed in a 180g. all still alive! All these fish live on the same reefs in Hawaii. I have 10 yellows and 5 medium achilles with
one Desjardini! Truly, I am THE TANGMASTER!!

 

[fastmarc]

Hmm....
This thread has taken on that 'tone'.
I don't think there is any intentional flaming (or otherwise) going on, but I think the only point being made above is that quite a few experience reefers have tried to keep this fish without much success and it would be a mistake for beginning reefers to see your success so far and think otherwise.
I agree, your success so far is commendable and I hope you'll be able to keep it healthy for another 10+ years, but as a simple research would show, this fish doesn't do well in the hobby.
Part of making this hobby work is by being responsible reefers and recognizing which live stock will do well and which, for the sake of conservation, should be better left out of the hobby.
I like that fish. They have a great character. I ended up with one (can't quite remember who gave me) for a few months that seemed very healthy and was fed various greens with high nutritional value (not crap like lettuce) and still, it just up and died one day as is the norm.

 

[tangs]

Originally posted by TangMaster
Hey guys..lay off!! One guy who has had GREAT luck with the beautiful MOORISH IODL! CONGRATS!!
NICELY SAID!

 

[xnikki118x]

I hate getting into flamings, but to be blunt about it, who the hell are you to criticize the helpful advice of moderators of this forum? Search around on here and you'll see that they all have given countless amounts of extremely helpful advice to hobbyists of all levels of experience--probably why they've been made mods of the forum, in part. NM reef and ophiura especially have always been extremely patient with my ignorance and always have great words of advice and encouragement.
With that said, I commend you for being able to keep a Moorish (and yes, there are two o's, but you already knew that since you're the Moorish expert right?) Idol for so long. 9 months isn't a great deal of time, but it's longer than many others survive in captivity. I wish you continued success, I think your new tank sounds like it's going to be fantastic, and I hope that you can get lucky again and be able to keep another beautiful idol.
But please, for the sake of our reefs, respect of the hobby, and for your love of these fish in particular...don't go around talking about how easy is it to keep them and disagreeing with our moderators when they try to kindly say otherwise. You'll just encourage others to try and keep these beautiful fish, and that isn't always a good thing. If you really admire these fish, I hope you'll understand that you should be doing as much as you can to protect them--that means letting people admire them and telling good stories abuot yours, but also cautioning that situations like yours do NOT happen often and should NOT be attempted without an extreme amount of research and preparation.
We're all in this hobby together, and we should all want the best for our reefs in our homes and in our oceans. Let's act like it.
Mods, if you feel I went out of line at all--and I hope I didn't, at least not too far--feel free to delete this. But everyone needs a smart@ss college kid to stick it to the man once in a while right?