Moving RFAs

[tdileo]

I know the moving anemones question has been asking a million and a half times but I have a slightly different couple..
The first is, do you notice your nems move at different times? I’ve had a powerhead directly on one of my flower anemones for 3 days straight and it finally decided to move.... in the middle of the night. Woke up this morning and it’s planted back down. I am trying to shut down this tank and move these guys to my bigger tank and my dad is losing his mind over the fact he has to keep paying the electricity bill for two tanks lol. Any other tips? I think pretty soon I’m going to try icing it.

 

[Dsnakes]

Rock Flowers get a much better hold than most. They sink the foot down deep. Most I have heard has been pulling the rock and moving it whole or breaking up and taking the place with them anemone. There's another Rock moving thread where someone held the rock upside down over another tank and used blunt force tapping to the backside. Apparently they don't like the vibration and it dropped off.

Most of this depends on your aquascape and ability to move it though.

 

[Polishpower]

I just tickled the foot and they come up eventually. that only works as long as they are not stuck in a rock. works best on glass

 

[tdileo]

Rock Flowers get a much better hold than most. They sink the foot down deep. Most I have heard has been pulling the rock and moving it whole or breaking up and taking the place with them anemone. There's another Rock moving thread where someone held the rock upside down over another tank and used blunt force tapping to the backside. Apparently they don't like the vibration and it dropped off.

Most of this depends on your aquascape and ability to move it though.

They are on my rock and unfortunately I can’t move it all over to my new tank because this is in my first tank so you can imagine the problems I have in there. Bryopsis, asterina starfish, bubble algae galore, and even found an aiptasia the other day (just 1 and haven’t added any coral in like 4 months). I’m going to hope the powerhead works again and I get lucky and catch it mid move. If not then I’m trying the vibration trick. Thanks!

 

[tdileo]

I just tickled the foot and they come up eventually. that only works as long as they are not stuck in a rock. works best on glass

Yeah mine live on pretty big rock chunks and I can’t reach the foot. If it was on glass I would just use a credit card under the foot like I did for my BTA when I found it climbing the wall. Knew I would be breaking this tank down soon so slipped under the foot and popped it in a breeder net.

 

[Mirya]

Take the rock out of the tank and suspend it with the anemone upside-down over a bucket of saltwater (e.g. resting the rock on top of an open 5 gallon bucket with a shallow amount of water in it works well for this). Then wait. The anemone will be fine out of water for awhile. When I had to do a tank move, I left one out for over 15 minutes with no ill effects.