Moving Acans

Bayareareefer18 · Mar 27, 2019

Hi guys. Had a similar post about this recently but looking for some more advice.

Essentially I have a nice little Acan garden going and loving it. The issue I have is one of them has these massive polyps. It came from ASD with 4 heads. Each is probably 1.5"-2" across when fully open which is larger than each of the other Acans with all their heads. My worry is that this single one will encroach on all the space of the others and limit their growth or be detrimental to their coloration and health.

The advice on the previous post was just let them be and they will look nice together once they grow in. I definitely can see that point of view.

What worries me is I finally got a look at this bad boy when it was slightly retracted at night and saw how many new heads are under the massive original 4. When they pop out the will soon be covering anything near it.

I tried to irritate it to get it to retract enough to remove it from the rock but still all I could feel is flesh.

I'm wondering how long can they be out of water? I'm thinking pull the rock. Let them retract then pop big boy off then give him his own rock and let the others fill in the original. Bad idea? Good idea?

Thanks

sbash · Mar 27, 2019

It has encrusted onto the rock eh?

If you have all your tools ready, pulling the rock, chipping it off and putting everything back into water again shouldn't be a problem. Heck, I bet one swift hit of a hammer to a chisel will be all it needs.

People (I?) do it all the time. Just keep a bin with water near by to temporarily put the rock's fragments and to catch the debris (don't want all that dust in the tank). I anything gets damaged, I hear 'Revive' is good for that sort of thing. I just ordered some, so I'm not sure how well it works (yet).

Geebs19 · Mar 27, 2019

Holy smokes those are huge!!

Sod Buster · Mar 27, 2019

Pull it out, they will shrink and slime up. A screwdriver and a pop with a hammer under it. Swish around in small bucket, put the rock back in and attach the big one in a new home. It'll be fine.

Bayareareefer18 · Mar 27, 2019

sbash said:
It has encrusted onto the rock eh?

If you have all your tools ready, pulling the rock, chipping it off and putting everything back into water again shouldn't be a problem. Heck, I bet one swift hit of a hammer to a chisel will be all it needs.

People (I?) do it all the time. Just keep a bin with water near by to temporarily put the rock's fragments and to catch the debris (don't want all that dust in the tank). I anything gets damaged, I hear 'Revive' is good for that sort of thing. I just ordered some, so I'm not sure how well it works (yet).

Thank you. I don't think its encrusted I just can't get to the base where it is glued to pop it off. I tried with it refracted a bit but always weirds me out grabbing the fleshy part of a coral

Geebs19 said:
Holy smokes those are huge!!

Right! This thing has been crazy since day one and now it's a time bomb ready to blow lol

Sod Buster said:
Pull it out, they will shrink and slime up. A screwdriver and a pop with a hammer under it. Swish around in small bucket, put the rock back in and attach the big one in a new home. It'll be fine.

Cool thanks so much. Kinda what I thought just still new to all this. I'm just happy my corals are growing the way they are let alone have space issues lol. Fortunately i can pull the whole acan rock