How strong is a Crocea's foot?

[JEFFR259]

Picked up a nice Crocea from my LFS over the weekend and he has a couple Astrea Snails stuck to his foot from being in their tank.

These shells are keeping me from getting him situated on the rocks.

Can I pull those shells off without hurting it's foot or is there something I can do to entice him to let go of the snail shells so I can get him appropriately placed?

Thanks!

 

[a4twenty]

try enticing them with some food, it probably wouldn't be wise to start pulling, don't know if the snail would let go before you hurt the clam.

 

[rc02116]

Agreed. Don't try to pull the snail from his foot...More than likely you may injure the foot and the clam will go down fast. It is unsual to have the snails constantly attached to the foot though, maybe you just need to monitor at night and see if the snail moves away.

 

[IFbettas]

Is the snail still alive, or just a shell? If it is alive it will eventually try to get away or die. Otherwise the clam will have to decide to let go.

 

[JEFFR259]

oh, the snails are long dead. They were empty shells when I bought the clam. I since have found a nice piece of LR in my tank that has a huge hole in the middle. I put the clam there. The clam isn't IN the hole, he just rests over it. It appears he's dropped the shells since his foot is attached to the rock now

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

[TWallace]

You can cut the tissue off of the shell with a sharp knife. Otherwise, the clam is unlikely to let go of it on its own.