How to move a Crocea

[Gregg37]

I have had a T. crocea in my mixed reef for about 25 months now. I bought it as a 1.5" specimen and it is now up to about 3" (shell length). I originally put it in one of BRS's "Clam hammock" and placed it in the sand near the upturned snail shell in the photo below. After the about 8 months or so, the clam had disintegrated the hammock and had attached its foot to the bottom glass under the sand. Not a big deal I thought, it is doing well and looks great there. Well, it has slowly "drifted" to the point where it is now against the front glass. Has anyone moved a T. crocea? I am not thrilled about trying to move it, but it is impossible to clean the front glass now and I would really like to get it up onto a rock somehow. (Yes, I know there are some grains of sand in the mantle - I have a yellow head watchman who is doing her job and turning the sand... and likes to "snow" on the clam and a few corals.)

 

[TX_REEF]

Some searching says that you can use a credit card first to try and dislodge the holdfast, and otherwise a new razor blade, keeping it tight to the glass.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

@Miami Reef?

 

[minus9]

You might want to use a razor blade to cut the byssal threads. You can very gently lift the clam a bit, it’s important that you don’t lift too much and tear any threads from the clam. Sometimes you get lucky and you can tip the clam a little to one side, then cut the threads at the attachment point, which is the glass. Take your time and go slowly. The key is to only cut the threads at the glass and not near the clam itself. It moved towards the glass because there’s more light coming from the glass. They need/want to attach to a solid surface, so you can move it to the rocks closer to the light(s).

 

[Shigshwa]

If you would like to move it, I would suggest very carefully cutting the byssal threads right where the threads attach, which could be on the glass itself. Use a sharp razor blade, the rectangle ones. Once cut, please move it to the new location, such as a rock, or even a frag disc. Do not damage the thread itself, or this can cause an infection.

PS. I suspect that the clam is trying to burrow into some kind of rockwork, as do most Crocea. In the wild, they do eventually dig themselves into rockwork to protect themselves from predators.

 

[Gregg37]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I finally worked up the nerve and had some time to take care of this. I was able to use a new, sterile, surgical scalpel to sever the byssal threads that were holding the clam to the bottom glass. I moved very slowly, taking about 5 minutes to cut the threads, by gently and slowly sliding the blade along the glass. I then added a new piece of dry marco rock I had left from my original aquascaping and placed the clam on it. It has not moved or jumped off the rock yet (2 days), so I am hoping it will attach itself to the rock.

(Please pardon the photo quality as I used my Motorola phone camera with no lenses, filters or photoshop.)

Here is a before picture of the clam still attached to the glass, after I moved the sand away:

And the after, with the clam placed on the newly added rock. Picture taken about 1 minute after placing the clam onto the new rock and you can see it was already beginning to open its mantle:

Good luck to anyone else who may attempt this. I was a bit anxious about doing it, but I just took my time and it worked fine.