Bubble Tip attached to Maxima Clam

Starganderfish · Apr 29, 2023

Advice please?
I have a lovely Maxima clam that’s been growing happily in my Reef. Tripled in size over the last year. I also have a really nice red and green bubble tip anemone (though it’s not super “bubbled” anymore.) BTA has split a couple of times and I now have three of them. Not ideal but also no unexpected.
The problem is, one of them has attached itself to the shell of my Maxima clam. The tentacles spread all over the clam and surrounds and the Clam is barely opening now.
What’s the best way to encourage the BTA to move away?
I’m currently thinking pointing a small power head at the base of the BTA might annoy it enough that it moves?
Appreciate other ideas or advice.

ptrahan · Apr 29, 2023

Had it happen to a derasa. Didn’t bother the derasa, only bothered me. I used a plastic spudger to detach it from the derasa. I then counseled the bta regarding its attachment issues.
Maxima may be little more difficult due to the ridges. Some people say increased flow helps.

Starganderfish · Apr 30, 2023

ptrahan said:
Had it happen to a derasa. Didn’t bother the derasa, only bothered me. I used a plastic spudger to detach it from the derasa. I then counseled the bta regarding its attachment issues.
Maxima may be little more difficult due to the ridges. Some people say increased flow helps.

Cheers. The Maxima is definitely not happy. Mantle is pulled right in and barely visible. Because the BTA is more stringy then bubbled, the tentacles are covering most of the clams too, triggering it to pull
In itsa toe and blocking the light. I’ve redirected one of my pumps to point more at it and will see how that helps. I’ve poked at the BTA a bit but it doesn’t seem to want to love on its own, and not sure I want to risk damaging it by forcing it off.

JoJosReef · Apr 30, 2023

I would try to put a nem cannon on it to see if the BTA will leave faster. Maxima is already closed up, so the nem cannon shouldn't bother the maxima (more than the BTA, at least). If you're not familiar, it is an opaque tube (e.g. PVC) with a natural sponge (or filtration sponge) at the end (not the sponges with treatments on them for cleaning), and you position it over the BTA with the sponge side at the base of teh foot so it doesn't just slide out, and the lack of light and flow prompts the BTA to climb out of the tube.

OrionN · Apr 30, 2023

Just pick him up and slowly peel the anemone off. It is OK if you injured the anemone a bit. It will be fine. The clam won’t be fine with the BTA attach on it.

Starganderfish · Apr 30, 2023

OrionN said:
Just pick him up and slowly peel the anemone off. It is OK if you injured the anemone a bit. It will be fine. The clam won’t be fine with the BTA attach on it.

It’s ok to just peel the nem off? I always read that was bad.
Honestly, and I know it’s harsh to say it, but I’m not going to be devastated if the nem dies in the process to save the clam. I still have two other splits from this nem and the clam is potentially way more costly and valuable. I’d rather save the nem as well but given the choice the clams more important.
I’ve been looking at the nem canon idea but im not sure how I’ll go attaching that to the side of a clam.

Starganderfish · Apr 30, 2023

Thanks for all the advice.
I tried pointing the powerhead at it but it had zero effect. I blasted it repeatedly with a turkey baster for a few minutes and it definitely pulled in on itself and moved away, but it just shrank down into the cracks and seams of the clams shell and underneath next to the clams foot. The Clam's on a clay cradle so there's a cleft underneath and the anemone just pulls back into it and there's no way to easily remove it. That also means I couldn't figure out any easy way to seal the sponge from a nem canon around it without irritating the Clam or accidentally detaching it or tearing it's foot. Too many times when I've tried to do fiddly stuff like that, I've ended up collapsing rockwork, snapping coral or knocking things out of place/detaching fragile critters and just doing even more damage.
In the end, scraping the nem away was the only solution and the process was pretty destructive to the nem. Sadly it didn't survive, but I undertook the process with the clam and nem removed from the display tank so at least I avoided having shredded nem spread throughout the tank.
The Clam is recovering and already spreading it's mantle more, I still have two quality splits of this nem, and in the end, the process of removing the nem probably would have irritated it so much it would have split again and I'd have ended up with even more nems crowding the tank. It's unfortunate that it went down that way, but as I said at the start, saving the Max was the priority.