How do I remove an acan from live rock?

justonwo · Oct 15, 2015

I have two well-established acans that were encrusted to live rock quite some time ago. Unfortunately, these acans are high in the tank and next to my SPS (and possibly interfering with the SPS). I'd like to make room for my SPS and get the acans to the bottom of the tank, but the acans and the SPS are mostly encrusted to the same live rock.

I can't think of anything terribly clever other than to try to chisel the acan off the rock. Is it better to just move the SPS, leave the acans attached to their existing rocks, and get some new live rock for the SPS? I would prefer to avoid that if I can.

Tanked_Life · Oct 16, 2015

Use a straight blade and cut as close to the base of the Acans on the rock as possible. If you give me a picture I can walk you through it.

My experience:

I successfully moved an encrusted favia from the rock using the straight blade technique and it is now flourishing just like before.

justonwo · Oct 16, 2015

Very cool. Here are the best photos I could capture. Obviously, I'll have to wait until they are fully retracted if I want it to be clean.

Reefloco760 · Oct 16, 2015

Nice looking acans!

Tanked_Life · Oct 16, 2015

Yeah those are very sweet looking Corals! another important thing when cutting is to try to push the blade straight underneath. You do not want to start shearing away the flesh you want to keep the flesh in one solid cut. So on each side of the Acan you want to push the blade underneath flush with the rock

Shep · Oct 16, 2015

Tanked_Life said:
Use a straight blade and cut as close to the base of the Acans on the rock as possible. If you give me a picture I can walk you through it.

My experience:

I successfully moved an encrusted favia from the rock using the straight blade technique and it is now flourishing just like before.

This is your best bet

justonwo · Oct 16, 2015

Excellent. I will do my best. The rocks will make access a little difficult on one of them. Is the skeleton soft enough that a straight blade will push through it pretty easily or does it require serious effort?

Tanked_Life · Oct 16, 2015

Thats the trick, you arent actually cutting through the skeleton, you are cutting between the skeleton and the rock which is the reasom you need to stay as flush as possible to the surface. The edges of the skeleton are brittle enough to give leeway if you run into a problem but you should do just fine explotung the gap between the coral and the rock you cut!

justonwo · Oct 16, 2015

Well, it was really not that difficult, but I felt bad for the poor guys. It'll be better, in the end, if the acans are away from my SPS - and I need more room for SPS anyway. One of the two I still need to attach to a rock when I can get some more putty, but the other is near the bottom of the tank with the other acans. Hopefully, they will survive. My SPS didn't like being out of the tank too much during surgery.

Tanked_Life · Oct 16, 2015

Im glad everything went well!

justonwo · Oct 16, 2015

Yes, thank you for the advice. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I really appreciate it.

justonwo · Oct 16, 2015

One question. Did I or do I need to dip the coral in something to keep the cut flesh from getting infected? I tried to keep from cutting the flesh but still had some damage.

justonwo · Oct 17, 2015

Wow, I'm surprised at how well they are doing. The polyps are coming out and both acans seems relatively happy. The second acan was really huge when fully inflated, so it has a ways to go, but they both look like they'll survive.