Thinking outside the box . . . or shell

[HawkeyeDJ]

I was just wondering what would happen if I were to glue a small GSP onto the shell of one of my trocus snails. Since those snails don't bury themselves in the substrate like a lot of other species, would either the snail or GSP be harmed? Or what if I did the same with a small piece of plating monti?

 

[MnFish1]

I was just wondering what would happen if I were to glue a small GSP onto the shell of one of my trocus snails. Since those snails don't bury themselves in the substrate like a lot of other species, would either the snail or GSP be harmed? Or what if I did the same with a small piece of plating monti?

I have seen 'stuff' growing on mine - rarely. GSP will rapidly outgrow the shell though - you could trim it. If the question is can you - sure - if the question is 'should you' - I might have a different answer:)

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

My bet would be that the GSP would eventually grow to a point where it becomes a problem for the snail. The monti I would bet would die from constantly being moved around the tank and not getting consistent light or flow. I have seen snails with a mushroom on their shell before, but I'm not certain how that played out over the long run.

 

[oceanleaf]

One thing to note is that you can't glue GSP directly onto the shell because it's a soft coral.
You have to glue a small piece of rock with GPS attached to the shell instead.
But my opinion is that both the GSP and the snail will be worse off from this.

 

[Cell]

One thing to note is that you can't glue GSP directly onto the shell because it's a soft coral.
You have to glue a small piece of rock with GPS attached to the shell instead.
But my opinion is that both the GSP and the snail will be worse off from this.

How does the glue or coral know if it's a rock or shell?

 

[oceanleaf]

How does the glue or coral know if it's a rock or shell?

Sorry I didn't make it clear.
I meant that the GSP has to be naturally attached to a small piece of rock by encrusting. Then, we can glue that small piece of rock to the shell of the snail.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

How does the glue or coral know if it's a rock or shell?

I think he was trying to say that GSP would be hard to successfully glue directly to a shell without the substrate that it was attached to initially. So essentially you'd have to glue a gsp covered rock to the shell.

 

[Cell]

I guess I'm not understanding why gluing GSP to a rock is any easier than a snail shell. The rock is not necessary at all. You can glue the sheet to a snail shell just the same.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

I guess I'm not understanding why gluing GSP to a rock is any easier than a snail shell. The rock is not necessary at all. You can glue the sheet to a snail shell just the same.

Lets say for example you scrape GSP off the glass and try to glue that to rock, shell, anything at all. I don't think that soft tissue would survive direct contact with super glue. The only way that I've seen GSP grow onto a new surface is by placing something with gsp already on it in close proximity and letting the gsp grow onto it. This is why I'd think that you would have to glue an additional piece of substrate (one with gsp on it) to the shell.

 

[Cell]

You can scrape off sheets of GSP and glue them anywhere. Glue on the bottom side of the sheet does not affect growth on the polyp side whatsoever.

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

You can scrape off sheets of GSP and glue them anywhere. Glue on the bottom side of the sheet does not affect growth on the polyp side whatsoever.

That's been my experience. Granted, I only have one GPS, and when I got him, he had no frag plug or disk, just looked like a small piece of thin cardboard. I glued him to a frag plug and then when I found the right spot for him, I glued the plug to a rock somewhat bigger than a golf ball. He has almost covered the entire rock, sometimes growing as much as a centimeter in a single day.

 

[trevorhiller]

My vote is test it on a hermit crab if you're going to do it. Worse case he climbs into a new shell. ;)

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

You can scrape off sheets of GSP and glue them anywhere. Glue on the bottom side of the sheet does not affect growth on the polyp side whatsoever.

Awesome