[rsr3alex]

Hi,
Have a 30 gal reef. My anemone, thankfully, split last week. He had gotten way too big for my tank. Took up the entire top and hardly left room for my boxfish to come up and eat at times. Killed some of my worms and damaged corals. So, I was very glad to see him finally split. Now I have 2 much smaller ones. One I would like to trade to the fish store but am having a heck of a time catching it.
The one I am trying to catch is on my largest piece of rock and has attached himself inside a deep hole. I have had a gallon size plastic bag around 1/2 of the rock and him for a few days now, moving it around and upside down. He has not moved. Loves his new spot it seems.
Any tips?
Thank you,
Sheryl

[hcp28]

I thinkt hat your best bet in this sort of situation is to make his new spot, less hospitable. You can do this a number of ways, but I will state the easiest. First take a power head and point it in a way that it would blow the anenomae in the direction you would want it to go, be it to a smaller rock or something. After a few days the anenomae should be on its way looking for a new roost. This also works great when they are on the back wall and you want to move them back onto the rock work. I've never tried it on one inside a rock but I think if you blew it from the back it would want to move. HTH

Henry

[rsr3alex]

Problem is.....I have a hex shape aquarium. Not much room diameter wise. My powerheads are positioned more toward the bottom and have rock all around them also. I may have to make a decision on whether to chance with 2 of them and hope they don't position themselves up top near the light again and grow enormous.....or dis-assemble my tank somewhat to get aggressive in the catch.
If he were to move and it would be on another piece of rock.....how do you safely detach them?
I would love to keep them both, but I'm sure they will not stay small long-term (I think my clown would like for me to keep them both also).
Hopefully in the next year our basement will be finished off and I will have my big tank. I'm ready and am sure my box fish is too. Then there would be no worries in what to do in this situation.
Thank you for your reply.
Sheryl

[hcp28]

I think you mistook what I was trying to say. What I meant was to move him to a smaller rock so you could just take the rock out with the anenomae attatched to it. There really isn't a safe way that I know of to remove it when it is attatched without damaging the critter. I would take a piece of plexi glass and see if it would move to that and just take hte whole piece out critter included. Then you could sell it to whereever and it will eventually move off the plexiglass in it's new tank.

[rsr3alex]

Originally Posted by hcp28

I think you mistook what I was trying to say. What I meant was to move him to a smaller rock so you could just take the rock out with the anenomae attatched to it. There really isn't a safe way that I know of to remove it when it is attatched without damaging the critter. I would take a piece of plexi glass and see if it would move to that and just take hte whole piece out critter included. Then you could sell it to whereever and it will eventually move off the plexiglass in it's new tank.

Hi Henry,
I don't believe that I mistook what you were saying.
For me to take a powerhead and position it on the BTA, I would have to somwhat take apart my tank. I have very limited width to work with. My tank is deep and the powerheads are towards the bottom with rocks leaning on both of them and then mounded up from there.
Wish I could just pull the guy off of there.
I do like the way he looks in my tank right now. Don't see the second one very well, he is in the back towards the bottom, so maybe he won't grow so fast this time.
I'll just keep them as they are right now and hope for slow growth until I have my big tank.
They sure scare me around my other corals though.
Thanks again,
Sheryl