Feeding Moorish Idol

[colesea]

dattack...

I don't have much experience with moorish idols, but I do with butterfly fish and heniocous (sp?) in general.  Those long nosed type fish do best to feed on live rock. They love to pick off the small crustateans and stuff growing on it.  I've only ever seen one butterfly fish ever eat flake, trust me, I was completely shocked by it mysef. If I hadn't been feeding it, I wouldn't have believed it.  There is a product on the market called Zooplankton that is pretty good. It's not frozen, but you do have to refrigerate after opening.  If you could get your hands on some live brine or mysid shrimp, that's good stuff for them too.
~~Colesea

[dattack]

I heard those moorish idols are very hard to keep. But they look so beautiful also.

http://store.yahoo.com/marinedepotlive/583454.html

[colesea]

They are a really lovely fish. And expensive as all hell, which is why I won't carry them in the shop. Butterflies and Idols are just really picky eaters, they like to be in pairs, but usually they're captured singlely, in which case they could simply die of depression from being seperateted from their lifemate *shrug*. They're hard to feed too, although, there is a food on the market called Emerald Diet or something or other (don't remember the brand name) that is very similar to Ocean Nutrician's Formula Two, that had nice green algea hunks in it, with brine shrimp mixed in. I just stay away from the "delicate" fish in general, I always have bad luck with them because of high-stress retail situations.
~~Colesea