Quem tem / teve moreias?

[Ricardo Pinto]

Esta semana estava a ler um artigo sobre um aquário e na descrição dos "vivos" reparei que o tipo tinha uma Rhinomuraena quaesita. Nunca tive nenhuma moreia, mas lembro-me perfeitamente de há 5 ou 6 anos ver várias moreias nas lojas.

Rhinomuraena quaesita



Quem teve ou tem moreias? Qual a vossa experiência com estes seres magníficos?

Penso que são bastante difíceis de alimentar. Mas lembro-me de em casa de alguns amigos, dar camarão às moreias e de as observar a comer.

Olá Ricardo
Ainda não tive destas Rhinomuraena quaesita mas estão previstas três para o Estreito Abissal e a razão de três está neste tópico da ReefSanctuary que acompanho pontualmente e tem sido muito inspirador e instrutivo. Não é só o facto de serem difíceis de manter ou de levar a que se alimentem, mas também o facto de limitarem muito aquilo que com elas pode viver que me foi detendo ao longo destes anos, mas agora estou decidido a avançar e aproveitei o evento da troca de frags para abordar o assunto com o Brian da TMC que as disponibiliza para aquários públicos essencialmente.
O exemplar em causa vive há mais de 5 anos no sistema apresentado no tópico e a razão de colocar três ou duas, ainda não decidi, é devida ao facto constatado pela pessoa que mantém a moreia há 5 anos que se deu conta que havendo competição pelo alimento, a moreia reage e procura capturar o alimento em vez de ficar ali a olhar e ver o alimento vivo ou inerte a passar a frente do seu nariz ...

SantaMonica Escreveu:

Now as for eating: In the week that I had him in the sump, I fed everything to him at one time or another: Guppies, live ghost shrimp, flakes, live damsels, frozen mysis, etc. Never, not even once, did he pay any attention to anything moving about him; he just stayed transfixed on the water flow, and getting to the dark place.

Then I remembered the one thing that probably saved the BR's life: A few days earlier I had been talking with Jeff at ExoticFish.com, telling him I just got the BR, and he said something totally contradicting the forums. He said that the eel should not be by himself... he should instead be with other fish so that a "feeding frenzy" would develop, and the eel would get excited and eat. At the time, his advice just seemed like another opinion that probably would not work, but after observing the BR in the sump for a week, it did indeed seem like the eel was in some sort of trance or dream state; he was not aware that food was floating all around him. Thus he did not eat, and maybe he really did need to see others eating around him.

So I combined Jeff's "frenzy" advice with the eel's desire-for-darkness that I observed, and concluded that I should put the BR in the main tank even though he is not eating yet. The main tank has other fish already eating, and, has a 2 inch pipe (see the pics) that we already put in the sand for him to hide in (I knew I'd be getting some kind of eel, and for now the snowflake had been using it.) As for the eel's affinity for water flow across his head, I was not sure what to do about it, so I did nothing. The underground pipes were already positioned, and the fish were already in the tank and eating, so... in went the BR.

Within five minutes he found the pipe and went inside. The pipe comes up through the sand in four different places in the tank, and he would check each one out... sticking his head out of it a few inches. Then at night he would go completely inside and hide. He is REALLY scared of having his body seen. And although I never figured out how water flow affected him, I will say that the only time he came out of the pipe is when the pumps were all turned off (lights still on, however). Only then would he come completely out and swim around, and stick his head out of the water a tiny bit.

Well, the feeding attempts continued for TWO MORE WEEKS, with no luck. As far as I could tell, it had been at least a month since he's eaten (one week at LFS, one week in sump, two weeks in tank.) His bright blue and yellow colors were starting to fade, and he was losing energy too. But when I fed the tank any kind of live or frozen food, he would just watch it drift by. Many times I would turn the pumps off, thinking he might feel better and eat when he comes out. But nothing.

So I thought, if a frenzy is what he wants, then he'll get it. I held off feeding the whole tank for a day (to make the other fish hungry), and then all at once dumped everything in: flakes, mysis, nori, krill, brine, blood worms, along with THIRTY live guppies and TWENTY live ghost shrimp. And then I stuck a long-armed grabber tool (which when open, kind of looks like a BR with his mouth open), and pretended it was chasing and eating the food too.

Well, WHAT DO YOU KNOW!... he started getting ancy with everybody rushing by him... a few fish and guppies even hit him in on head as they swam by... so the BR grabs one of the guppies very lightly, and looks around almost seeming to see if he is doing the right thing, and then drags the guppy slowly into the pipe!

He came out a minute later (guppy gone), seeming a bit more excited. He did not eat any more, but I had at last seen the impossible with my own eyes. The next day, I confined my "frenzy" feeding to just guppies, and again dumped 30 in and used the grabber tool to chase them and guide them to the BR (and pretend the grabber was an eel too). Wow! He grabs another and drags it in. So I sit back now and watch the other 29 guppies swim right by his head. But now he just looks at them. So I stick the grabber tool back in and chase them around some more, and AGAIN he grabs one!

Huge realization: The BR is possibly in a dream state (after being caught by whatever method from the ocean)... and only the instict of "beating others out for the food" wakes him up enough to realize that there is food in front of him. I then also realized that it was not the quantity of guppies I put in that mattered, or even how many swam by his head. It was IF THE GUPPIES WERE BEING CHASED BY ANOTHER EEL (the eel-looking grabber tool). So, I reduced my guppy feeding to just 4 or 5, and just chased them near the eel with the grabber a few times a day. BAM! He would eat one usually once a day, athough a few times he at four or five.
Now the BR was starting to associate the grabber tool with "another eel", and as soon as he saw the grabber coming in, he would start coming out of the pipe to meet it. Then, my tank-maintenance man Bill Purcella (wpurcella@socal.rr.com) at Coral Reef Creations came up with the idea of grabbing a guppy by the tail (using the grabber tool) and feeding it to the eel. Well we tried it, and the eel came up to the grabber like normal and SNAP!... got the guppy and draged him into the pipe. Wow! So now it started to be a routine... feed a guppy with the grabber, and if the guppy gets away, chase him around so he'll swim by the eel's head.

Then I got cocky and would try to feed the eel before feeding anyone else (instead of after, like I had learned to do), and he became non-interested. So I'd remove the guppy from the grabber (so now the grabber arms would be open like the BR's mouth), and play with the eel a bit. This got him excited, and then I'd put the guppy back on, and POP! This started to work every time. The trick really seemed to be to get the BR excited first by using a grabber with open-pinchers so that it looked like another BR eel. Then put the guppy on the grabber and feed him.

Then the first setback occured. He stopped eating, no matter what I did. I played with him, fed everthing, and still nothing. This went on for a WHOLE WEEK. Then, for no reason, he began eating again. Incredible.

A sorte costuma proteger os audazes ...... vamos lá ver como se sai a coisa ...

[Nuno Moreira]

Boas Pedro,
E se parasses de meter bichos na cabeça do povo... Na altura andava naquela de comprar um shark porque sempre foi um sonho desde puto, tu compraste um bamboo e eu pensei, se o homem é corajoso para isso eu tambem o sou...toca a comprar um shark, agora vens com esses videos das moreias e pões-m a pensar em montar um aqua so para elas e para o meu shark. Vê se dás descanso aqui ao pessoal com essas ideias malucas.
Abraço

[Ricardo Pinto]

Não me lembro de ver as azuis, mas lembro-me de ter visto em 3 ou 4 aquários a "preta e amarela". Há alguma diferença de uma para a outra?

nunomoreira Escreveu:

Boas Pedro,
E se parasses de meter bichos na cabeça do povo... Na altura andava naquela de comprar um shark porque sempre foi um sonho desde puto, tu compraste um bamboo e eu pensei, se o homem é corajoso para isso eu tambem o sou...toca a comprar um shark, agora vens com esses videos das moreias e pões-m a pensar em montar um aqua so para elas e para o meu shark. Vê se dás descanso aqui ao pessoal com essas ideias malucas.
Abraço

Oláááááááá Nuno ... faço isto para ... ... vosso bem , para que peneis todos até à insanidade ... de tanta satisfação por evoluir nos conhecimentos, experiência, competências, capacidades que essas sim fazem a diferença para um meio natural sustentável e com algum futuro, com valor a todos os níveis.




Post Scriptum: Era para ser Nautillus pompillius mas não posso efectuar a variação do gradiente térmico diáriamente fazendo a temperatura variar entre os 15ºC e os 25ºC para simular a variação natural de temperatura que estes animais têm na natureza quando descem aos 200 metros da zona epiplágica, podendo ir aos 600 metros de profundidade já na zona batiplágica e à noite subir até aos 5 metros para se alimentarem ... mas a seu tempo terá vez

Ricardo Pinto Escreveu:

Não me lembro de ver as azuis, mas lembro-me de ter visto em 3 ou 4 aquários a "preta e amarela". Há alguma diferença de uma para a outra?

Há!!!

As que viste são fêmeas e juvenis. As fêmeas são amarelas ou amarelo azulado/esverdeado e os juvenis são pretos. Os machos são azuis. Trata-se de uma espécie protandrica ou seja hermafrodita sequêncial, muda de género ao longo da vida. Começa por um juvenil de cor preta, cresce e muda a cor azul de macho, cresce e acaba por mudar para a cor amarela ou amarela azulada/esverdeada da fêmea.

Por isso Ricardo o que tens visto são na realidade duas das três fases distintas por que passam as Rhinomuraena quaesita