Moving a crocea

[DMBillies]

I put a crocea in my tank a few weeks ago and he is slowly wedging his way down between two piece of live rock. What concerns me is that he is continuing to move deeper into the rocks and has actually shifted the rock work on that entire side of the tank (the two piece of live rock are part of a "pillar" holding up one end of a cave). I'm beginning to worry that he will cause a landslide, despite my careful stacking. He has attached to one of the pieces of live rock (if not both). I've never had to move a clam before, so I was wondering what is the best way to go about doing it.

 

[fishdoc11]

It's risky at best to try to remove a crocea from live rock. If you can just move the rock around a little to compensate that is what I would do. If he was attached to glass or something very flat you could use a razor blade to get him off.
I have heard of people slowly pulling them off but IMO that's very risky.
FWIW whenever I get a crocea I find a smaller piece of flat live rock and place them on that to attach. That way you can move the clam wherever you want. Some people also use a half a clam shell for the same purpose.
good luck, Chris

 

[rcmike]

Crocea clams actually bore into coral heads in the ocean. I have never seen them do that in a tank but maybe that is what he is doing. I'd do what Chris recommends and try to move the rock without trying to remove the clam from the rock.

 

[waynesworld]

I had to get one off the bottom of a tank and that was hard enough so I wouldn't want to pull one off the rock I thaught I may have hurt the foot when I did it because it never did reatached itself to any rock.

 

[DMBillies]

Ok, so instead of moving him off of the rock, I just rearranged my aquascaping a little and shifted the rock he was on. Not the easiest bit of balancing I've ever done, but a safer option for the clam I guess. He is not on the smallest piece of rock ever, but I imagine I could easily chisel the rock into 2 pieces without endangering the clam. Should I ever need to do something like that, is there any reason that is a really bad idea?

 

[rcmike]

Well, you can damage the clam if you just pull it off.

 

[Pickupman66]

I have read that if you cannot gently pull them fromthe rock, you can cut the byssal threads as close to the rock as possible with a new razor...

 

[gflat65]

I don't recommend it (disclaimer) but I've done it before (chisel). Mine lost a lot of fibrous tissue from the foot, but recovered just fine. This thing seems bulletproof, though.

 

[wooglin]

I have one that is boring into a crevice in a piece of my live rock. I am amazed it is really beginning to get deep. It does not look like it would be healthy but the clam is thriving. It is my green tinted crocea.

 

[KAiNE]

Ive got about a 6" Crocea that has slowly over the last 2 years sunk into a rock. He is at least 1 inch in at this point.

If i had to move him, I'd move the rock.... if the rock wouldnt fit where i wanted to move him, I'd chisel the rock.
I wouldn't dare try to fully remove him from the rock. I'd whittle the rock down to nothing before doing that.