Moved my Malu ....again....this time I had to make him detach.

[JonezNReef]

Thought I would share this incase someone else finds the need to relocate there nem. I'm not saying it's the best or only way it just works for me.

So I have been changing up my fish systems a lot lately. I have upgraded a few and taken down others over the years and especially lately. Through all this I have moved my Malu from tank to tank many times. The first 4 times I moved my nem it was on a rock it had been on for years...close to the entire 4 years I have had it (my tanks have been almost all bare bottom).
Recently I decided to upgrade tanks and moved the Malu and its rock to my current holding tank. Here it found my tiny 65lb rock that I planned on putting in the middle of my new tank. Only problem was I wanted the rock in the new tank to help the cycle and the nem wanted it to be its new home. Of course this meant I needed to "force" the nem to move. So since I didn't give the nem enough notice of eviction I had to sway it to let go. Of all the times I have moved the nem this was the first time I needed it to let go of the rock it was on with injuring it.
First I aggravated the Malu and made it retract down on size. All I did was poke mans rub at the back side of its colum and around its foot. Once it was retracted enough I turned off the flow and placed a 2" PVC T fitting over it. (I had air pumps on while the pumps were off) The next day the nem was fully open in the fitting but had not moved so I left it and checked the next day only to find almost the same setting. The nem just opened up in the fitting but now it had moved part of its foot, atleast a toe or two, on the fitting. So for about 15 minutes or so I gently tickled its foot until it released from the rock. Then I just placed the nem and fitting next to a few select coral free rocks for it to plant its foot for now.

Here is nem in its Mr T out fit
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170314/cd1325007c0e58363880bbe1fa7a44b0.jpg
And a pic of his foot. No stubbed toes
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170314/5c5b43c7962dca0ee3c36b485c6bcf19.jpg

[humphreyhh]

Wow...I have never moved my nem that much unless switching to a new tank which only happened once. I don't like to stress it since nems are very fragile...But you have had him for couple of years, I guess he is happy with you. 😁

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[JonezNReef]

I have changed tanks too much for my liking over the years. I bought the Malu bleach white when I had my first 65g mixed reef in my living room. It stayed put until it got its color back but once healthy it didn't play nice with some of the corals. So then I decided to have a tank centered around the nem so it was transferred to a 36g I had in my master bedroom. Then my wife got tired of hearing the tank in the room and living room. So I converted my garage into a new master bedroom and added a fishroom. I set up a 40g breeder with the 65g from the living room as in wall tanks where I put the nem in the 65g yet again. Then I upgraded to a scratched up 180g (found it for $100 the day I cracked my 65g so I was rushed) and converted the 40g into a frag tank and put it in the bottom of it. Then I decided recently to replace the scratched 180 with a new 180. So I set up a 120g holding tank while I was setting up the new 180 and took down the frag tank to make the holding tank more accessible. So I moved the nem to the holding tank where it left its rock of 4 years and attached to the only rock that was going into the new 180...figures LOL.
But each time I moved the nem I was able to just grab the rock that the nem was on and move it over. The first two times I moved it the nem I acclimated it, and it bleached out. The last two times I didn't even acclimate it and it didn't lose any color. But this was the first time I had to get it to relocate from where it had attached its foot.