Rockwork came with Nem

[DarkReefer]

Hi guys,

Just got 3 nems sent to me, possibly the 3 from my old tank or 3 randoms, who knows.... however they've been sent over on 3 separate rocks.
They've already been in their respective bags for 24hrs approximately, so not sure how much time I have left to really move?
They're acclimating at the moment and I've put in some of my tank water...

My problem is, whilst I'm happy to have the new rockwork, I'm worried about pests/hitchhikers. The rockwork that came with them would actually be handy in me being able to keep them separated off of the main rockwork by putting them on the sandbed in various spots.

Is there a way I can minimise/avoid the hitchhikers by utilising the rocks?
Or do I just have to run the gauntlet and deal with whatever comes with them.

I saw the thread about removing the nems, which is fine, but I'd still need to be able to put them on something in the tank to get them out of the bags, and currently I don't have any rock work spare for this without putting them on the main rockwork.
Doing that would allow me to at least keep the other rockwork out of my system and perhaps give me time to clean it/dip it and/or find other suitable dried live rock to use instead but means I need to move other corals around/off of the rockwork potentially and then mess around with doing the process twice. Also trying to do the pipe trick it whilst it's in a bag seems like it would be difficult.

Thoughts?

 

[DarkReefer]

Well I ended up putting 2 of the small pieces of rock in.
A quick look over those 2 pieces and I couldn't see any major pests or anything. There was a separate piece that had vermetid snails on it, but that wasn't put into the tank at all.

One of the nems let go of the rock it was on as I was taking it out and it dropped into a bucket, but I'm not sure if it's very happy.
All the nems are together in the corner, one appears happy and is already on the move toward the other nem on the rock.
The 3rd one that dropped, that doesn't appear to be wanting to grab anything just yet.
It was slightly grabbing one bit of rock but let go, so I repositioned it near the others and it ended up slowly dropping off the side of the rock and onto the sand. It's now very much in the corner near the overflow next to the other 2 rocks so fingers crossed it gets happier after a bit and moves onto something nearby.

I've turned the nero 3 off for tonight, think there's enough movement in the tank with the return pump alone so hope it can find some footing soon.

Edit: looks like maybe the 3rd one that wasn't appearing to be happy might actually be trying to get some footing. Looked like it's foot was trying to grip onto the overflow before. (didn't appear to have any injury on the foot so fingers crossed!)

 

[DarkReefer]

Small update;
The one that was on the overflow last night fell off just before I went to bed so I assisted it to get it's foot planted on some rock as it was a little head first in the sand, seemed to grab within seconds and I left it to readjust the rest of itself and turned the Nero 3 back on.

This morning all nems look happy and healthy. Nicely puffed and bubbled up roughly where I left them.
Will see how things look when I get home.

There was some tiny white brittle stars on one of the rocks last night too. The nem caught one of them for dinner, the other one was left to it.

Tempted to get some more rockwork to build up the back a bit to raise them up and closer to the light. Only problem is that the Nero 3 is on that side and I don't want the nems to venture over into it one day (there's guards on the back but I'm sure they could mess themselves up).

Will chuck some pics up once I get some decent ones.

 

[DarkReefer]

Quick pic, looks like I've also had a bristleworm hitch hike in on the larger rock there. Saw it crawl out a little from underneath. (third one is hiding behind the rock).