The Hand of Neptune

After spending 1.5 weeks in the QT, I've finally gotten around to moving the Ricordea florida pack to the main tank system. While they were in quarantine, though, I observed about 5 flatworms in the vicinity of the Ricordea. The flatworms were small, but I could almost tell that they were the greenish ones with the orange/red dot. I haven't observed that kind in my main display or refugium, so there's a good chance that the Ricordea had hitchhiking flatworms. This type of flatworm is not harmful to the reef aquaria, but it can become a nuisance as it goes through a population explosion.

I decided to put a drop of Flatworm eXit for 5 minutes just to give any flatworms a hard time while I acclimated the Ricordea to the refugium.

Here is "The Hand of Neptune" live rock in my refugium. It's probably just a simple piece of Tonga live rock. I took it out of the main display after a majano anemone migrated to it. While in QT, the majano moved up the glass and I was able to dispose of it.

Here is the rock, posing. Are you convinced now of the moniker?

I'm using Gorilla Super Glue (gel formula) which contains cyanoacrylate. Another hobbyist that is successful with gluing a lot (I mean A LOT!) of Ricordea suggested using a super glue containing ethyl cyanoacrylate. Looking at the MSDS, I find that Gorilla has ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate. So, they probably contain the same ingredients.

I think this glue works really well on live coral. I was instructed to avoid getting glue on the exposed flesh of an acropora specimen. But, I was so clumsy while situating it on live rock in my main tank. There was glue all over the bottom portion. Surprisingly, the coral encrusted over all the glue and is doing really well in my tank.

I removed the live rock and dabbed it with a paper towel to remove excess salt water. It was difficult handling the Ricordea because they would produce a slime. I didn't want to apply too much pressure on them, but at the same time, I need to get a hold of them! Most of them were already attached to a small piece of debris which I dabbed with a paper towel and applied a blob of super glue. After they were all in place, I waited 5 minutes before returning the live rock to the refugium.

For corals, producing a protective layer of slime comes in handy during very low tides in a natural setting. It probably delays them from drying out.

Here is the The Hand of Neptune minutes after gluing down the specimens. There's a very tiny one near the bottom bringing the total to 9. I gave away one green and one blue to a buddy on SDReefs who had let me borrow PC lighting while my AI LEDs were out for repairs.

Who will survive? Who will multiply? Who will simply melt away? Only time will tell. I'll be sure to post updates. As the Ricordea become acclimated to their positions, they should spread out more. If all goes well, the rock will look like a hand full of beautiful Rics!