Maxima woes

["Umm fish?"]

Hey! I asked this on the clam forum but haven't heard anything back and the clam has lost a few more degrees (I'ts at about 70 now). Anyone here?

I have a maxima that has started detaching from the rock it is on. It's still extending its mantle fine and doesn't look horribly unhappy, but it's now at about a 45 degree angle. My question: does it need help detaching or should I leave it alone? (I'd rather have it off of the rock it's on, honestly. It's sharing a rock with a galaxea and I'm starting to worry about sweeper tentacles. They're fine now, but I'm worried about future problems.) Or, should I prop it up so that it doesn't have the stress on its foot?

Thanks for your help!

 

[PSEUDOREEFER]

Where is it attached? The clam shouldn't be on an angled rock. The rock should be nice and level so that it's foot isn't under stress.

 

[rkl303]

It should still survive but I'd find it something more level to place it on. My crocea lost part of its foot after it fell off from being unlevel but it grew back.

 

["Umm fish?"]

This is an inherited piece. It looks like it was level when the clam was little but that it's just grown out of the place on the rock. Should I try to detach it? Any hints on methodology?

 

[rkl303]

Supposedly you could cut the foot away(actually tenticles or something) but you are supposed to do it as far away from the base of the clam as possible to not damage the fissal or whatever gland but I wouldn't chance it and would just try and fix the stone till the clam sits happy.

I make no garentees if this is right because this is just from what I remember.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Doh. Sorry. I keep forgetting that I own a camera now and I don't really have to rely on words to get my point across. Here's the shot:

 

["Umm fish?"]

It looks to me like the ledge was pretty good when the clam was young, but it's just over-balanced now. I don't know if you can tell from the shot, but I can see the white ring of flesh (I assume it's the foot) and I can also see some of the stringy stuff that's attached to the rock (the brownish-whitish stuff). Do you think that I'm trying to avoid the damage to the white, fleshy ring?

 

["Umm fish?"]

Okay, the surgery is over. I think the only things I cut were white strings and those I cut right at the rock face. The clam's not happy with me, but it's starting to peek out again. Now we wait and see if I caused some sort of horrid infection. Here a post-op pic:

 

["Umm fish?"]

By the way, thanks for the help, everyone!