Moving a crocea

[Anonymous]

Well, I've been really busy and have (kinda) neglected the tank a bit, overnight it seems the aptasia has gotten the upper hand. Not to worry, I'm just going to pull out the rock and replace it and I have a couple of tubrostreams on order to help out with my circulation issues. But, I have a nice crocea on the top piece of rock uppermost in the tank. It has wedged itself nicely up against some supporting LR. I'm sure it has attached itself, any ideas on how to safely move it? I don't want to have to keep the rock(s) it is on.

 

[Anonymous]

You have to be careful where the clam is attached, it's food will probably be attached via little filaments that are part of it's foot. Now ideally you could simply use a razor blade to cut those filaments (not the foot itself) and free them. If he's wedged into a rock that can be difficult... I would suggest removing the rock from the tank, since you don't want to keep the rock, use a dremel with a diamond wheel (or if you got a fancy diamond band saw that works wonders too) and simply cut the rock away, maybe you can be left with a little rock afterward that won't be too bad.

 

[Anonymous]

I've got dremels, I hadn't thought of that the rock is pretty soft . Not looking forward to this redo, it's going to be a mess LOL.

 

[Anonymous]

It always is a mess, if you move just one rock in the tank, you'll never get it back the way you want, and end up changing most of it around just to get it to fit

 

[Anonymous]

It always is a mess, if you move just one rock in the tank, you'll never get it back the way you want, and end up changing most of it around just to get it to fit

Gaaah! I was trying not to think about it :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I just finished moving my 100 gallon for the second time within a year. Never again. I took some fairly heavy casualties during the second move.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and don't move the clam. I think by maintaining sufficiently nasty water quality, and having a few peppermint shrimp, I got rid of all my aptasia.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and don't move the clam. I think by maintaining sufficiently nasty water quality, and having a few peppermint shrimp, I got rid of all my aptasia.

It's pretty bad, I've never had a tank get so infested so fast-I also have some monster majanos there too. I'd rather redo the rock-it's only a nano so the dollar cost is nil.

 

[Anonymous]

Just add one peppermint shrimp. Mine has eradicated the anemones in the whole tank. One pep ate all the aips in my 125 in about a week(and I had a lot).

 

[Petsolutions]

If you ever need to move a clam, what we do here when it has attached is we will just make the clam want to move on its own so it will detach from the rock. We point a powerhead directly at the clam, and let it run a while. Point it from the side, not from the top, you don't want to damage the clam. Eventually it gets annoyed and lets go, allowing it to be moved. Once it is relocated it settles in and there are no stress issues related to getting its foot to detach.

 

[Anonymous]

you can chisel it out carefully. The live rock should be pretty soft, so it should not be too stressful for the clam. In fact, why don't you chip the pest off, and let the clam stay in the rock? Or the rock is completely cover with the Aptasia? I ever have to worry too much about Aptasia, just use peppermint shrimp as other suggested.

If you really have to take it out of the rock, which I suggest you don't, you can cut the thread that attached it to the rock. A new set will grow to replace it. Just don't tear or hurt the gland.

 

[Anonymous]

If you can't slice cleanly where the byssal threads meet the rock, then go for the chisel/chip/cut method. As Dupa7E says, good LR is generally brittle and it's easily chippable. But if the clam is on an especially dense piece or a piece that's too round to chip or split, then the Dremel or a hacksaw should do it. I've had lots of luck using hacksaws; good porous LR falls like butter. 8) (The absolute densest of LR can only be split with small fireworks... I defer back to 7E's expertise on this. :wink: )

Oh, this route isn't to discount the P'mint shrimp or powerhead suggestions, it just sounded like you wanted this done ASAP. Do you have the new LR already? What turbostreams did you get?

 

[Anonymous]

I'll give the peps try and get some this week, but I'm not holding my breath LOL. If they dont do it in a few weeks I'll go the other route. JH, I got two Turbelle Nanostreams to beef up circulation on the bottom. I really dislike the existing aquascaping though, but if I can salvage some of the rock (ie the one the crocea is on) that would be fine. As far as new live rock, I am fortunate to be close to Dick Perrin's Tropicorium so getting quality rock is not a factor.

http://www.tropicorium.com/

I will do a WC today once I wake back up and see how the clam has attached itself and post. I just got off a 36 hr shift and need a nap.

Thanks all, I appreciate it 8)

 

[Anonymous]

8) surprisingly, the clam has attached to one of the smaller rocks I used to support it (maybe the size of a fist) so if I have to move the crocea that should be a non issue.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

It is very easy and harmless to move an attached clam. What you do is have a sharp tool handy. Take the rock with the clam out of of the tank, it make it easier but you don't have to. Just tilted the clam to one side slowly to expose the basal threads. Cut the ones that you see and you will be able to tilt him even more. One side then the other until you cut him loose. Becareful not to cut the fleshy part of the foot or of the basal gland, they withdraw these back into the shell anyway so it would be hard to injur them.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I haven't had to move things yet. I added the peppermint shrimp jsut to see if they would help. They haven't had that great of an impact so far though.

 

[Ben1]

I added 6 more peps to my tank a few days ago. Hoping they like my aiptasia enough to eat them all lol.