Here's what's going on with my "tank life"

[Beckmola24]

Lol Wildreef My husband takes your point of view Nikki He says that by purchasing one I'm in turn supporting the LFS importing them... I don't know how many people are actually purchasing the little guys, but the LFS keeps importing them. Maybe they just see it on the list and order w/o much thought behind it. Maybe I'd be better off making a point on MARSH and see if as a group we could talk the LFS out of ordering them so often. My heart really went out to those MI's when I saw 4 of them swimming around in a 30g cube.... Any ideas on what to do here with the store? I talked with a few folks at the other LFS and they say they never order them due to the stigma and the difficulty with MI's. Good for them!

 

[Paul B]

I know this is a very old thread and I would like to add an update. Becky is correct in what I said, I followed them in Tahiti and they were always in pairs with one leading, which I assume was the male, and one following. I never witnessed them alone but there was a lot of distance between them when they went on their 50 yard treks around the reef. I believe that (as Becky said) they need this pairing and if you get the wrong one in the relationship you will have a problem. I only saw them eat sponge and they particularilly liked this lime green sponge that I have been unable to identify. I think the key to their survival is buying the correct one (not too easy) and feeding fresh sponge. I give mine (which I have a little over two years now) sponge that I collect in New York from pilings, it is very common here in the summer. I have very little left and only feed sparingly because I know I will run out before I can get some more. Although my Idol will eat anything it will just about jump out of the water for sponge. The frozen sponge I feed has to be cut up in small pieces because Idols have very weak mouths (personal observation) and they can't rip pieces off anything.
I also feed almost every day live black worms that have been fed "Selcon".
Once a week I add flake fool that was first soaked in vitamin A (col liver oil)
This is just a theory of mine for another thread.
I have had maybe 15 Idols in the last 35 years and although they always ate, they eventually succomed to some unusual malady and died before the first two years but I never fed sponge, worms, or vitamin A.
I am in no way advocating that everyone run out and buy one, they are a tough fish to keep. I have a lot of experience and my tank is very old. The main reason I went to Tahiti was to learn about these fish. It has taken me many years to get one to finally live over two years. Now if I can get it to go another ten years I will consider it a success, anything less will be failure.
Have a great day.
Paul B

 

[WildReef]

Importing Butterflys

We had an importation business for some years and I quit using a particular collector when he sent me some 300 of the rarest butterflys and noting else. I had to sit and watch them all die slowly and tried everything to keep them alive. I have blue spot megaprot, moorish, everything you can think of. The only butterfly in the order I faxed to this particular collector was a Copperband Butterfly. So, as a way of excusing the stores, you must be sort of forgiving. They get fish foisted off on them that they never ordered and are just simply trying to find a dedicated hobbyist to attempt giving it a chance to live. It is no excuse, I know, but you can't ship them back to the ocean, so you simply do your best to keep them alive as long as you can or find them homes. But you can refuse to do business with that collector or wholesaler again. The collector that did this to me in Sri Lanka even offered to replace the entore shipment free of charge, but I refused to do business with him ever again.

I have been known to take a fish toally covered in ick and throw it into my perfectly healthy reef tank to give it a chance to live.

 

[Paul B]

have been known to take a fish toally covered in ick and throw it into my perfectly healthy reef tank to give it a chance to live.

I do that all the time because for some reason my tank is immune to ich.
I know it's wierd and you don't have to believe me but for the last 25 years or so I have aquired many fish with ich, some like you say were in a lfs and they were just going to throw them out. Sometimes they were cured and sometimes they died but it never infected anything else. (so far)
Have a great day.
Paul