LTA Sucked Onto Powerhead

Nathaniellund17 · Jan 12, 2022

Hello All,
I woke up this morning to find my LTA sucked in my powerhead. I've attached a few pics and a video. I turned the powerhead off, then worked to detach it from the powerhead. It appears to be fine with no tears in the foot, and the mouth doesn't appear to be gaping open. I put the LTA back in the display. Is there anything I should watch out for to remove before it dies? Right now it's just sitting next to a rock deflated.

vetteguy53081 · Jan 12, 2022

Not uncommon for these guys.
mug you haven’t already, place Ben in a solo cup or acclimation box and assure it’s healing and doing well
In many cases, low light or flow will send them upwards

Eagle_Steve · Jan 12, 2022

Nathaniellund17 said:
Hello All,
I woke up this morning to find my LTA sucked in my powerhead. I've attached a few pics and a video. I turned the powerhead off, then worked to detach it from the powerhead. It appears to be fine with no tears in the foot, and the mouth doesn't appear to be gaping open. I put the LTA back in the display. Is there anything I should watch out for to remove before it dies? Right now it's just sitting next to a rock deflated.

Thank goodness for the nem guards. The foot does not look damaged much, if any, so that is good.

Few tricks for LTAs. They like a little shade, like kind of soft random flow and like a nice place to bur their foots. Small insets in the rocks at sand level work well for placement and a little trick is to use some PVC pipe just larger than their foot to provide a home.

You take and cut 3-4" piece of pvc and smooth the edges. Then take a pipe cap and pop it on one end. You do not need to glue it. If your sand bed is not 3-4" deep, take the pipe and put a 45 or 90 on the end. THis will allow for the nem to have a nice safe place for its foot and still allow for the nem to be at sand level.

The below LTA have been in this spot for quite a while now (maybe 2-3 years) and their feet reside in pipes like described above, as my sandbed is only 2-3" deep. You can also see that they are in an inset at the bottom of the tank. This gives them flow, but soft and random. It also puts them in the lower par section of the tank. All the LTA i have ever had and even the ones in my shallow 7' nem tank like lower light and softer random flow.