Now if the streamer is missing, but no new growth is yet apparent, it's a good idea to wait a week or two to see how the fish's condition progresses. The fish's body should appear somewhat full and rounded out at the sides, the stomach area should not appear concave or sunken, and the skeletal structure of the fish should not be noticeable underneath the skin.
Typically the Moorish Idol is a moderately-peaceful fish best kept with other non-aggressive species. Potential choices for tankmates include Chromis, carnivorous grazers such as wrasses, and cave-dwellers such as more peaceful dottybacks.
In regards to keeping multiple numbers of these fish together, there are many opinions. Some hobbyists recommend only keeping this fish singly or in mated pairs, while others suggest they only do well if introduced into an aquarium in groups of 4, 6, 10, or whatever.
From experience, we know that large mature adults have a low tolerance for one other, and therefore keeping a single specimen or a mated pair is recommended. As far as juveniles, although this fish does seem to commune fairly well as a group, nonetheless their behavior towards one another can be unpredictable.
Sometimes a group of smaller Moorish Idols will get along just fine, while other times there may be one renegade in the group that becomes dominant, and decides to pick on all the others. Moorish idols should be provided with plenty of unobstructed swimming space, as well as ample reef-like hiding places to take refuge when feeling threatened. A tank of gallons is recommended, although you can try a gallon tank. Moorish Idols will often pick at large polypod stony corals and certain soft coral polyps.
Although this fish primarily eats coralline algae and sponge in nature, this doesn't mean that it might not pick at other types of sessile invertebrates, or maybe even motile crustaceans. Typically difficult fish to keep, larger specimens usually do not adjust well to aquarium life. With the tendency to ignore foods offered, most often their health will decline due to slow starvation.
Smaller juvenile or sub-adult specimens may more readily adapt to their surroundings, but just the same, these fish are unpredictable in their feeding behavior.
Whatever the case may be, there does seem to be some indication that they do better if they are kept in pairs, harems, or schools, rather than singly. So the first hurdle is in finding more than one specimen at the same time. If it is even possible, the specimens still all need to be suitable. But what constitutes a suitable specimen? Other than normal healthy appearance issues—the fish should not be emaciated, not have any bodily damage, and should not show any symptoms of any disease—it can be tricky to identify an individual that is acceptable.
Some fin damage is usually inevitable, especially to the dorsal streamer, and it is usually not problematic. Washed-out coloration is a common occurrence if the store keeps the specific gravity of the display tank a bit on the low side, or if they maintain treatment levels of medications, especially copper. Never purchase a Moorish idol that is not already feeding. It would be better if it was feeding with gusto, but this would be an extremely rare individual.
The size of the specimen also seems to play a pretty big role in success or failure. The smaller the individual, the younger it is, and hence the greater chance you will have success with it. Individuals between the 3- and 4-inch mark seem to do somewhat better than those larger or smaller.
Any individual that does not appear to be perfect should be automatically disqualified from purchase. I chose eight specimens, but I turned away eighteen other individuals. From what I have experienced, there are easily twice as many specimens that are doomed before they even leave a fish store as there are fish that reach those stores in a healthy condition.
Contrary to most recommendations, any specimens purchased should be quickly removed from situations that are not as near perfect as possible. Getting a specimen into an appropriate setting as soon as possible seems to go a long way toward long-term success. This also holds true for quarantining specimens. There are many, many reports of otherwise perfect individuals dying in quarantine tanks within days of acquisition.
Conditions in quarantine should match the intended long-term aquarium as closely as possible. Moorish idols do not transport well, and each acclimation that is done before they reach their final home seems to take more out of them.
The Moorish idol is one of the species that is most asked about, but it is usually never given a chance by those responding to such queries, and rightfully so.
The recommendations from acknowledged experts all follow the same thoughts: the Moorish idol is better off left in the ocean. However, there will always be experienced aquarists willing to accept the challenge, and others who insist upon keeping the Moorish idol, regardless of warnings.
After reading this article, perhaps some readers who may have otherwise failed at keeping this species will now succeed. But hopefully, most will not even attempt to keep this species at all. When the fish have already been obtained or in very rare instances, when they are acquired by an expert attempting to uncover the secrets to successfully keeping them , this article can serve as a concise and compiled reference to which the aquarist can refer.
While it is the main intent of this article to discourage the acquisition of Moorish idols, it is also to acknowledge that there will always be a market for the species, and that reference material for their care is sorely lacking.
It is hoped that you, the reader, will do the responsible thing and leave Moorish idols in the wild; if not, at least have enough information available for this most demanding and impossible of species. And here we conclude, exactly where we began, just like the wrap-up scene in a crime drama, with a pile of bodies.
This article was over two years in the writing; I was gathering data and constantly researching anecdotal reports from hundreds of individual Moorish-idol keepers. Two years ago, I approached this species with bright eyes, full of wonder and hope. That was the beginning. Today, I still look at them with bright eyes, and they still fill me with wonder. But I, like many before me, have had my hopes dashed by Zanclus cornutus. And here, the analogy to a crime drama is not so far off.
Perhaps, as conscientious aquarists, we should close our eyes now and imagine the body count playing in this horrible end scene. In my home, eight bodies lined up, and in countless other homes many, many more…bodies upon bodies After reading this, knowing that the strict keeping conditions contained herein were still met with failure eight times and met with success zero times, will you still purchase that Moorish idol?
It is my sincerest hope that you will not. Are you ready for the total body count, one I have been tallying for the nearly three years it took to conceive, plan, and write this article?
This table details how long the various fish I had been keeping tabs on survived in hobbyist aquariums:. Three hundred eighty-two bodies and not one single living individual made it through the time it took me to finish this article, the last having been reported dead as this article was going to press.
Zero made it. Not an Endorsement Make no mistake, this article is not intended to be a guide as to how to obtain and keep Moorish idols successfully. Failure Almost Assured Almost every hobbyist who will try to keep Zanclus cornutus for any reasonable amount of time will fail, and fail miserably. My Experiences A perennial on the list of favorites for many aquarists, Zanclus cornutus has broken the hearts, minds, and spirits of almost every aquarist who has tried to keep it.
Tools for Success I thought about it for quite some time and came to the conclusion that, although Moorish idols were a risk, if I waited for stability to be achieved, I was one of very few people who did have the tools necessary for success. Learning from Mistakes Before that unfortunate power outage, I was observing some very difficult species doing exceptionally well in this tank.
I have seen this species kept in more modest enclosures 6-foot length , but the bigger the system, the better. Space is absolutely needed for keeping this species successfully on a few counts. For one, it is a wide-ranging fish that suffers tremendously for not having three dimensions to move about in. Second, Moorish idols really need to have a sense and reality of being able to get away from you and from other fish in their system. Being kept in too-tight confines can result in a few problems, including repetitive swimming behavior pacing , physical damage or death.
Per the ongoing comparison with their relatives the surgeonfishes, the Moorish idol also appreciates reef-quality water. Without this, it suffers by being much more susceptible to biological disease.
Rock arrangements are best made in bommie fashion, as opposed to the typical rear-wall stacking that is so predominant in our hobby.
Areas toward the center line of a system can be built up with free-stacking or drilled and pinned rockwork, allowing for passage of livestock and water along and around all edges of the system, and granting more out-of-view hiding spaces. Wait several days after the Moorish idols have arrived before evaluating them for purchase.
This keeps the dominant specimen from eating all of the food. For a species that seems to die so easily in captivity, a healthy idol is an eating machine. This fish will consume any type of food in all formats: dried, flake, wafer, pellet, frozen and fresh terrestrial greens blanched.
This being stated, there is likely still a considerable number of losses that can be attributed to either a dearth of food or nutritional deficiency. The Moorish idol consumes a good deal of live sponge material in the wild and seems to thrive most often when offered foods and live rock that contain these in aquariums. The provision of sponge matter may be critical to them staying in good health and color.
If you have more than one Moorish idol in a system, there is a strategy to get food to both specimens. Having more than one Moorish idol often proves difficult in terms of dominance issues during feeding.
This is best avoided by training both specimens to feed at the same time but in different, out-of-eye-view areas of the system. Like the touchier, more disease-prone surgeonfishes e. Before becoming free swimming juveniles they reach a length of 7. The Moorish idols have an interesting life cycle.
They spend much of their time at the ocean surface after hatching from the planktonic egg. When the idols grow large in length, they settle out of the plankton onto the coral reef. Moorish idols are difficult to care for in captivity.
Due to their colorful appearance and lively nature these Idols serve as great aquarium fishes. They usually require large tanks, exceeding some US gallons. Some of them became voracious and destructive in the aquariums if supplied with low level of water. They are peaceful in nature. Their survival rate is quite low and most of these species do not survive for a year.
Modish idols prefer salt water. They survive in strong salt water movement as they are found swimming anywhere from the surface to as deep as feet. Moorish idol is prone to diseases.
They require enough cruising space. They suffer stress and strain that will increase their chances of getting affected by contracting disease or parasitic infections.
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