RBTA Removal

[Mopar Reefer]

Have a few too many in my tank. What is the best way to remove them? Their rock is too big to break up or remove it from my tank. Any ideas?

 

[DonW]

Ice cube or just point a small powerhead at its base until it lets go.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

There are several methods that I've tried, some successfully, some not.

Ice cube to foot. Lots of people swear by it, never worked for me.

Powerhead aimed at it. Has worked for me every time but once. That time, I had to actually chip a small portion of the rock from under the foot.

Put a bowl over the RBTA to totally shade it. As it moves, you can easily get a finger under the foot that's already loose, and massage it loose. This has worked for me the one time I tried it.

Sweet talking, turns into Yelling and Screaming at it. Never worked for me.

 

[DonW]

Sweet talking, turns into Yelling and Screaming at it. Never worked for me.

You didnt use the right words. Besides you need to try and sound like a woman. Give it a shot next time and be sure to record it so we can all see how its done.

Don

 

[Darthv247]

you can probably get some store credit for it if you dont harm it

 

[Mopar Reefer]

^ That was my plan if anyone oin here didn't want it first. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[Chichas01]

Have a few too many in my tank. What is the best way to remove them? Their rock is too big to break up or remove it from my tank. Any ideas?

Recent thread had lots of suggestions:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45943

 

[Mopar Reefer]

Thanks, I'll try the sweet talking method 1st before any others never know

 

[returnofsid]

Nothing like being rejected right off the bat to boost a guys ego!!! lol

 

[mcvicker]

I tried the powerhead, which didn't work for me. Someone recommended using a credit card to get a portion of the foot up, which worked really well, and then the powerhead finished the job.

 

[Reeferdude]

A powerhead alone shoots too wide a stream of water to be very effective. Take short pieces of tubing and keep reducing it down until you get down to a 1/4" nylon piece. This will concentrate the flow of water from the powerhead into a small stream which you can use to carve it's foot off the rock. Works great!

Gene

 

[returnofsid]

It's not at all necessary to carve or cut anything....lol. Just placing a powerhead aimed at it will encourage it to move. When it starts moving, part of it's foot will be loose. Once part of the foot is loose, it's very easy to get your finger under that portion and gently peel the rest of it loose.

 

[Reeferdude]

DUH! Good grief! I do not mean to cut. A concentrated stream of water BETWEEN the foot and the rock. Blimey! A concentrted stream of water powerful enough to cut the foot with a powerhead would be impossible anyway..

 

[returnofsid]

I know you didn't literally mean to cut the foot. What I'm saying is that aiming a regular powerhead at the anemone will work just fine. My RBTA has split many times in the past 3 1/2 years. I've almost always used this technique and it's always worked, except for a time when I couldn't get the powerhead aimed at the RBTA. You just have to be patient and watch the anemone so you make sure and catch it when it is on the move.

 

[Reeferdude]

McVicker doesn't seem to think it works "just fine".

Nevertheless how about this... In situations where the stream produced by a powerhead is insufficient to lift or separate the foot of the Anemone from the rock, a more concentrated stream produced from the reduction method I alluded to in a previous post may produce results not achieved by the wider stream of the powerhead alone. Better?

 

[Mopar Reefer]

After all the suggestions I used my finger and gently got it under one side of the foot and pryed it up. As soon as I did that my other RBTA split in my nano, two in one week wow!

 

[Reeferdude]

Maybe they were experiencing transference during the stressful detachment process.