Finding and Moving All my Inverts

PlanB · Jun 1, 2018

I will be transferring livestock from one tank to another this weekend, and would like to know a good method for finding all my invert creatures to safely move them. As you know, they hide in the rock work, but I will not be transferring the existing rock, so they need to come out of their homes. Any tricks to flushing the shrimp, crabs, snails etc. out of the rock in order to catch and move them safely?

I am thinking of setting up a brute can with saltwater to transfer all the live rock into, since I will also be moving my fish, and rocks get in the way when catching these guys.

Thanks in advance.

Crabs McJones · Jun 1, 2018

FWIW when I did my tank transfer, I took a picture of my rockwork for reconstruction. Filled up buckets with tank water, and transfered the rock over. If they're up in the rocks, they'll most likely stay in there until they're back in the new tank. If not it's as simple as picking them up out of the bottom of the bucket. The most difficult part was digging through my old sand to find all of my sand dwelling snails, but I got them all

Remember you never want to reuse old sand in a new tank. Start with a new bag of sand

EDIT: I missed the part where you said you won't be transferring your old rock...Not sure what you can do to get them to come out without harming them.