Fattening up moorish idol tips?

[Diveks]

I’ve keeps a couple over the last 20 years and contrary to popular opinion they aren’t terribly difficult fish.
The thing is that they burn through food insanely fast and needs to be feed at least 3-4 times a day.

Here’s my guy Fat Frank:

wow what a beautiful and healthy moorish. so i guess they burn through food like anthias? or maybe even more? i have some anthias in the tank.

The trick for high metabolism omnivores such as idols is to supplement with Nori. They should be able to graze on nori for at least 1/2 the day, IME. Frozen foods are good, a couple of times per day. They really benefit from sponge (angel formula frozen is a good source of this). if you can get them eating flakes or pellets this can add calories, though normally not "quality" calories.

will be feeding more nori then. they finish it very very fast

I would try to fatten the whole fish, not just the tips

HAHAH i worded it wrongly ;Playful

 

[Viking_Reefing]

wow what a beautiful and healthy moorish. so i guess they burn through food like anthias? or maybe even more? i have some anthias in the tank.

will be feeding more nori then. they finish it very very fast

HAHAH i worded it wrongly ;Playful

Yeah, much like anthias but just different foods.

 

[ReefHog]

I love the Gourmet Grazer. And so does my MI.

 

[Troson farms]

Hello, i am once again attempting to keep moorish idols and regal angels after ive lost my previous ones to my velvet outbreak almost 2 years ago, from lack of observation in qt of an orangeshoulder tang. I broke down the tank and restarted with new rock. i have finished quarantining my regal which is now in an acclamation box (nobody is paying attention to the angel but better be safe than sorry).

Well back to the moorish idols, i found a healthy pair yesterday near me (no ich, not thin, long streamers which sadly broke a bit on the way to my house). they are living with a tiny niger trigger in a 100g quarantine. Well today i fed them some DIY frozen food with angelixir since they dont sell any complete frozen foods here and to my surprise they ate although they are a bit slow on chasing the food and will miss some, im a bit worried that they will slowly starve. should i try out pellets? i have nls, ON formula 1 and 2. i want them to fatten up in qt so that they can compete for food in my dt. while they are not thin, the fishes in the DT are fat with some of them having slight fat rolls. any tips?

Try PE mysis mine love it and will fatten them up fast

 

[Diveks]

I love the Gourmet Grazer. And so does my MI.

might just have to get that!

Try PE mysis mine love it and will fatten them up fast

sadly PE mysis is not available here but i do have access to unbranded mysis. not sure of its quality so i mix with other foods. will be starting copper soon. they are eating 3x a day with 1x a day nori. not trying to cause a mini cycle in the quarantine.

 

[Diveks]

A little update on the moorish
Both bad and good, decided to do a pretty rushed observation after the copper. One of the moorish killed the other before even starting copper. Fortunately the other one survived qt and i don’t think it has lost weight.

It was very shy in qt and would bolt at the sight of anything. And just seemed very bolty overall. Im not sure if it ate the pellets or if the trigger was the only one eating but usually no pellets were left. Fed nori daily, frozen 2x a day when in qt.

In the DT it seems to have made some friends, the tangs and regal show no aggression. But my majestic angel chases it around, the regal puts it in its place though so not too worrying. Hopefully it will live a long and healthy life.

 

[Diveks]

Another update:
The moorish is now doing well in the DT and is eating pellets! Yay!
So what I did to get the little guy fat was feed:
- Nori
- Pellets (nls, aquaforest marine mix s, hikari seaweed extreme, ocean nutrition formula 1) 4x a day
- my frozen mix 1x a day
Learnt that he/she doesn’t like clams in a shell, live blackworms, and wont eat the aquaforest anthias pro feed s (i think because its too small).
Now that he has a bulging stomach I think i can cut down the feeding amount a bit (not frequency though). Love that he now follows me around the tank.
Pic (sorry for the nori particles):

 

[ReefHog]

Another update:
The moorish is now doing well in the DT and is eating pellets! Yay!
So what I did to get the little guy fat was feed:
- Nori
- Pellets (nls, aquaforest marine mix s, hikari seaweed extreme, ocean nutrition formula 1) 4x a day
- my frozen mix 1x a day
Learnt that he/she doesn’t like clams in a shell, live blackworms, and wont eat the aquaforest anthias pro feed s (i think because its too small).
Now that he has a bulging stomach I think i can cut down the feeding amount a bit (not frequency though). Love that he now follows me around the tank.
Pic (sorry for the nori particles):

Looks great