Haddoni Trapped in Egg Crate

Toob · Dec 27, 2023

Have a bit of an issue with a 12" blue haddoni that I picked up from a friend.

The anemone was attached to the egg crate under the sand in my friend's tank - we snipped around it with flush cutters and pulled him out no prob. I brought him to my tank and rested him against the bottom and he started to expand and was looking OK last night.

This morning the egg crate was pushed up through the sand, which seemed odd. Upon closer inspection he had squeezed his entire foot through a single egg crate hole and then re-expanded his foot and attached to the bottom of my aquarium. Then sort of half-heartedly expanded his oral disc on the other side of the egg crate.

Any ideas on how to lure him out of it (one direction or the other?) I pulled him out and took a couple pics, but he hasn't deflated enough on either side to get the egg crate off - and which over hole he's jammed through is far too deep to cut toward, if that makes sense.

Paleozoic_reefer · Dec 27, 2023

I would think just leaving it alone is your best best. Nems (all types) can fit through the tiniest of holes when they want to…best of luck with that beauty!

Toob · Dec 27, 2023

Paleozoic_reefer said:
I would think just leaving it alone is your best best. Nems (all types) can fit through the tiniest of holes when they want to…best of luck with that beauty!

Thanks - this is mostly my thinking as well. Except I don't think he "knows" he's trapped, and was really struggling to expand on either side. I'm worried he'd just sort of waste away, he certainly wouldn't be able to eat anything with his entire torso jammed through a single 1/2" gap in egg crate.

Current plan is to set him on his side and hope he squeezes out in search of something to root on:

Seancj · Dec 28, 2023

That happened to me with a large magnifica. I was able to carefully cut some of the plastic egg crate away using some needle nose wire cutters to enlarge the holes it could squeeze back through. Don't try to force it! Cut away some of the egg crate around the areas of most concern. Put it down now on the sand bed and let it do its own thing getting loose. Hopefully by morning it will free itself.

Toob · Dec 28, 2023

Seancj said:
That happened to me with a large magnifica. I was able to carefully cut some of the plastic egg crate away using some needle nose wire cutters to enlarge the holes it could squeeze back through. Don't try to force it! Cut away some of the egg crate around the areas of most concern. Put it down now on the sand bed and let it do its own thing getting loose. Hopefully by morning it will free itself.

I would never have imagined they could do that. But yeah, thank you. This is basically what I did to get him free - cut bits of egg crate away during moments when he was less inflated until I eventually got a shot at the one he was squeezed into. What a stressful afternoon!

He seems to be recovering now, and my clarkii moved in: