moorish idols, feeding.... help

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dv8

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hi fellow fish keepers, in have just today cought 2 moorish idles, and have now found out that they are realy dificult to feed. i can't throw them back as i live in p e and when the water gets cold again they will die. they are also beautyfull fish.

the advice i have managed to find so far is that they need loads of greanary, grazing for between meels, also that they need space to swim and place to hide, as do most fish. i have also found some links that say some do eat frozen foods, most feed on spounges and alge. this is a bit of a problem as i do not have alge. my regal tang and three other pigmy angels take care of that

so any advice would much be apreciated. and if you all are realy good i'll put up some pics for you;) . he he, i must just scale the size down and will put them up for you all asap.

in the meen time, pleeeeeeeeez help. any advice welcome, well good advice pls, no bollie
 
dv8. I beg of you to please return those fish back to the ocean. They dont always do well in our little glass boxes.
 
Moorish Idols have a very very low survival rate in captivity :(. The Mortality rates are so high as they refuse to eat. I would have left them in the rockpools... Anyways to each his own.
 
Can you get live food? try everything you can get hold of and don't catch more, they don't usually do well in our aquariums.
 
They do not take well to life in captivity and needs exellent water quality and a large tank ( min 5 foot). They are most of the times reluctant to feed and feed on sponges in the wild. No aquarium with live rock can provide the amount of sponges they need. They might take to brine shrimp, Mysis and krill, but still decline in time. New reef gels may help them to survive - it is a type putty you stick to the rocks to feed on.
They are also not coral friendly but they are invertebrate friendly.

My advice is to take them back to where you caught them, acclimatize them slowly and set them free back into the water. I know all about that "do not let fish back into the ocean" but in this case if you don't, they will die! :(

There is a thing called impulse buy - in your case, please don't impulse catch :whistling:
 
They have very specialised diets in the ocean and I seriously doubt you will be able to replicate that diet. If they were easy fish then just about everybody that has a marine tank would have one of these fish in as they are truly beautiful.

Please return them back to the ocean or they are destined to die.
 
if i put them back in the water here they will di too, i do have an option to take them to the oceanarium where they have a masive tropical tank where they do have many moorish idle living and thriving. so if i see a decline in health then they will go there emediately. i can get live food fairly readaly, it's just a wee bit of a mision but well worth it, i am also looking into building a small eco system of phyto etc. working on that still tho. mt tank is 1,5 m long so size should be o k
 
But if you just caught the fish today, then why can't you put them back?

Perhaps send Steve Warren a PM, I think he works at the oceanarium, very friendly chap, I'm sure he will help you as much as he can.
 
I think the oceanarium is their best hope, but the sooner the better, good luck with them.
 
i hear you guy's. thing is water here in p e is only warm enough this time of the year, the fish come down with the warm currents and then when the water get's cold they die anyway. i do have a good solution to the problem though, as i do not want to kill fish. the oceanarium just down the road from me has a masive tropical tank with many thriving moorish idles, i have already contacted two people there seaking advice. and at the first sine of decline in there health i will be adding them to the oceanariums comunity of fish
 
dv8 said:
i hear you guy's. thing is water here in p e is only warm enough this time of the year, the fish come down with the warm currents and then when the water get's cold they die anyway. i do have a good solution to the problem though, as i do not want to kill fish. the oceanarium just down the road from me has a masive tropical tank with many thriving moorish idles, i have already contacted two people there seaking advice. and at the first sine of decline in there health i will be adding them to the oceanariums comunity of fish
Click to expand...

Im just going to sigh @ this one, not judge. Just sigh...
 
Please bud, take them back to the ocean tomorrow morning, even if you think they are going to die when the water gets cold, it's their natural environment, they will find a way to survive, who knows, maybe they move into warmer waters up north when it starts getting too cold for them down south.
 
dv8: unfortunately many LFS's sell all sorts of things not fit for aquarium life. Feather stars etc which are almost 100% surely not going to make it. Its all about making a buck a lot of the time...

There are a few exceptions to this rule!
 
viper357 said:
Please bud, take them back to the ocean tomorrow morning, even if you think they are going to die when the water gets cold, it's their natural environment, they will find a way to survive, who knows, maybe they move into warmer waters up north when it starts getting too cold for them down south.
Click to expand...
I agree with Viper. Just acclimatize them slowly....
 
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