moorish idol

[Lovesfish]

Does anyone know where i could find a moorish idol?

 

[steelhealr]

It's listed as expert only. SH

http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=371

 

[Mr Miagi]

It's listed as expert only. SH

Because they recquire HUGE amounts of water. Listed 125 gallons by liveaquaria, i would add even more through reading different sources. They can grow HUGE!

 

[Navarre]

These fish are notoriously fussy feeders. They usually do ok in a tank for about 5 or 6 weeks then they simply keel over and die

Definately not a beginners fish, an extremly mature system is needed and a very experienced keeper also. Make sure you see it feeding before purchasing also.

 

[willtang3000]

these fish are extremely hard to keep in the hands of an extremely skilled marine keeper

 

[Seahorse]

Don't worry, that'll change in a few years Seems to always happen in this hobby, 10 years down the road the fish is either easier to keep, hardier, or unfortunately weaker.

Also, what are the breeding qualities of these guys in captivity?

 

[Navarre]

Moorish idols cant be bred in captivity. In fact most marine fish cannot be bred in captivity. Gobies, clowns and even a few small angels have been sucessfully bred in tanks but the larger fish are impossible at this time. I very much doutb that fish like tangs, idols or large angels ever will be bred to be honest.

For example, tangs need large shoals (they are usually solitary and dont tollerate others) at breeding time. They then wait for the moon to be in the right phase and then the females dart up high out of the main shoal, she will then release her eggs into the ocean and swim back to the shoal. A few males will follow her out of the shoal and fertilise the eggs and then follow her back ot the shoal. This will happen all night with different females darting in and out of the shoal followed by the males. The eggs are left to the own destiny and most are usually eaten. Some will find a place to rest and hatch into fry.

As you can see, a tank of enormous preportions would be needed to replicate conditions for fish like this, even if this were possible then the microplankton that the fry needs to survive would be incredible hard to... Where is the fry within that large body of water? If you saturate the water with micro plankton to ensure feeding then you risk algae bloms and nigh nitrates due to high nutrients, too low and the fry will starve. As you can see from this type of fish alone is near impossible to attempt breeding, sadly this is the one area of our hobby that i dont see many improvements in my lifetime