Whacking my Yuma...should i do it??

[flyyyguy]

This is the first yuma I have ever kept......I have kept tons of floridas and fragged them easily.....

this thing took FOREVER to really attach to anything in my tank........and now im contemplating cutting it in half(or more) so I can trade for another sweet one (or more).

How a frag my floridas is simply take a new sharp blade and cut them into halfs or quarters with a mouth (or at least a part of one) in each piece and cut them in place.......then sperate their foot a little so they dont fuse back together. this way i never really touch them with anything but the blade and dont have to get them to reattach to anything usually.

should I do the same thing?? and should i cut it into 1/2's or could it handle 1/4's??. Its over 4" across when opn completely

[Azurel]

I wouldn't but it's not mine.....I would just let it go natural, why risk it if it is doing good in your tank. With yumas being so finicky I would hate for you to cut it up and lose all of it.....I vote hell NO!

But if you do

[flyyyguy]

Originally posted by Azurel
I wouldn't but it's not mine.....I would just let it go natural, why risk it if it is doing good in your tank. With yumas being so finicky I would hate for you to cut it up and lose all of it.....I vote hell NO!

But if you do

thank you for that input.

I AM really hesitant......im one who will take q wad of eopxy and or glue and a balde or dremel to anything..........but never fragging a yuma I really want to make sure allo will be w3ell if i do it....

Ya know...if this thing didnt take so lont to get to attach I would have probably already cut it without even asking. But..........its defintely not like any other coral I have kept so just want to be sure........

[ManilaMan]

that yuma is just gorgeous! you need courage to whack that beauty. anyways goodluck

[bigScott]

whack it in half if ya cut it..less stress, then send me the other half..lol

scott

[flyyyguy]

lol.

appreciate the input everyone. My problem is that I run sps tanks....and they are too clean. Ive had this thing since earlier this year and it hasnt grown nor dropped anything. Its happy...but like zoas and ricordia they are perfectly healthy but just dont grow much.

I guess Im waiting for someone with experience cutting a high end yuma like this that can either confirm my methods and tell me its perfectly safe, or correct my methods and tell me its perfectly safe.

At this point..........the knife isnt going anywehre near it but with some experienced input in favor of I could easily change my mind.

I do have another pink one....not quite as brilliant of pink and it has a grey rim on it.............I would cut it as well....im thinking I might practice on it.

ps- anybody know what kind exactly both of these ive pictured are??



here is my other one......

[BristlewormKing]

I haven't had the guts to try slicing up a Yuma - the ones I had spit babies all over the place so I never had to worry about it. However, when I WAS thinking about it, I looked at Blane Perun's articles/pics. The link is below - good luck!!!

http://www.ricordia.org/

[flyyyguy]

bristleworm king...thanks for that........

although ium confused......that article started out as exactly what I was looking for then as soon as the article started tit stopped not covering anything,

??

is there a link on that page with the rest of the story that Im missing??


NM..found it....reading......

[kingfisher62]

You should cut it and while you are at it tear off a peice of the "Mona lisa" for me!!!!!
Seriously I would not touch it , it is just too pretty.

If you must try to frag it I would wait till it forms two mouths!

[flyyyguy]

Originally posted by kingfisher62


If you must try to frag it I would wait till it forms two mouths!

Its over 4" across........and hasnt even thought of making another mouth or dropping a baby in my tank.

thanks for the input all....im torn.......it seemed to work fine in that link bristleworm king provided. that one only had one mouth as well and looks pretty much like the exact same type, as well as the thickness he descibes is exactly what this thing has

I do have prop units i can hang off the walls of my tank, and my water is clean.

OR...i could jsut start feeding the dang thing directly and it would probably cooperate


desicions...decisions......maybe if somebody who has mentiuoned interest in this thing makes me an offer of a trade with something different but similarly sweet to trade once this thing heals it may encourage me to take the plunge.......

[kingfisher62]

Wish I could help ya more! I know what you mean . I don't have any yumas yet but the ricordia I have took several months to form another mouth. Keep us all posted no matter what you do!

[BristlewormKing]

Feed feed feed....then after it splits a baby from the foot (faster than waiting for two mouths), slice the big one in half - that way you have a backup. Ones like that are way too difficult to find to slice, dice and melt!

If you look really really close at the pic below, you can see a couple of the babies that came from the "foot" of the yumas. It may just be my tank, but I usually fed them chopped enriched mysis and soaked cyclop-eeze using a turkey baster once or twice a week.

[flyyyguy]

out of curiousity, what could this thing sell for as it is 4" across and no dummy has put it under the knife. lol

just curious......i picked it up with a few other things from this guy breaking down his tank........I keep primarily sps like is aid, but this thing was so nutso bright I couldnt turn it down...i thought i paid a lot for it....but now im thinking i might have stole it.

im not EVEN going to sell it, but just want to know

[BristlewormKing]

Hmmmm....if you were selling it to me, it would only be worth about $35 with FedEx shipping included - due to the little white speck of sand that is on it.

If you wanted to sell it to someone else, I have seen ones with similar color on Atlantis for over $200 (but they are usually high anyway). I believe I have seen a couple on Zoafrag for around $180. There was one I spotted for $65, but was really small and mouth was gaping. Basically, any I have seen like the one in your pic has been wayyyyyyyy outta my price range!

[currentking]

i have cut a couple yumas and they recoup in about 2 weeks. THe one thing is make sure that you reattach it asap. just keep in mind it will be half the size for awhile. Like you said before it is a slow grower. Yumas very rarely get 2 mouths. They are different than florida rics. If it is doing well now, there should be no problem cutting it. Also try to put it back in the same lighting codition(same ammount of shade). I had one for several months that was about 5-6" across and I moved it and it died on me.

[Azurel]

I still say don't do it....I would try feeding it multiple times a week for a few months first and see if that gives you any new babies...

[flyyyguy]

Originally posted by Azurel
I still say don't do it....I would try feeding it multiple times a week for a few months first and see if that gives you any new babies...

this is my plan

Originally posted by currentking
i have cut a couple yumas and they recoup in about 2 weeks. THe one thing is make sure that you reattach it asap. just keep in mind it will be half the size for awhile. Like you said before it is a slow grower. Yumas very rarely get 2 mouths. They are different than florida rics. If it is doing well now, there should be no problem cutting it. Also try to put it back in the same lighting codition(same ammount of shade). I had one for several months that was about 5-6" across and I moved it and it died on me.

My experience with this one has been quite different. It took nearly three onths to get it to attach to anything.

I put it under netting

I stuck it with toothpicks,

I wiped all the slime off with a bunch of q-tips and and stuck it in a huge wad of super glue gel and left on the counter for 20 minutes-Dont laugh....you dont know how many people have told me its not possible to successfully glue loose florida ricordia...........I can do it successfully EVERY TIME. anyway...didnt work on this guy....haha

it has been all over my high flow tank, killed a couple of sps , been stuck to one of my cls intakes.,.......

I finally got it to attach by putting it in a tupperware thing riddled with holes and filled with a few rocks. it took 6 weeks and had very little flow through the thing...by the time he finally DID attach, he wqas oozing himself out of some of the holes and i had to cut the tupperware thing off of him.......b ut FINALLY.....I had something i could work with and glue it to my reef and there he is happy as a clam

[aquarius77]

After that horror story i think your just better off leaving it alone bro. There arent many who can keep yuma alive and well, be happy.

[Tallinu]

Here are a couple of tricks you can try. You can if possible gently move or turn the rock so that it's positioned in such a way that he has to crawl slowly toward the light/orientation again. No severe positional change. You only want him to move a half inch at best over a couple of months. Hopefully he will leave some little bits behind and they will develop, albeit slowly in your tank it sounds like. You can also use a gentle current, a small powerhead specifically aimed his direction in an effort to make him move. You want the current somewhat low key so that he doesn't detach in an effort to get the heck out of there. So use a small powerhead from a distance to be a tiny bit annoying only. You can also use that very sharp razor blade you mention and make a nick all the way down to the bare rock on the outside edge of his foot. That is sometimes all it needs to get a little bud going. All of these tricks are not surefire. I've had florida's and yumas leave a trail of little bitty ones and sometimes they leave nothing. It might be worth trying something easy going with such a beauty.

Tony

[flyyyguy]

Originally posted by Tallinu
Here are a couple of tricks you can try. You can if possible gently move or turn the rock so that it's positioned in such a way that he has to crawl slowly toward the light/orientation again. No severe positional change. You only want him to move a half inch at best over a couple of months. Hopefully he will leave some little bits behind and they will develop, albeit slowly in your tank it sounds like. You can also use a gentle current, a small powerhead specifically aimed his direction in an effort to make him move. You want the current somewhat low key so that he doesn't detach in an effort to get the heck out of there. So use a small powerhead from a distance to be a tiny bit annoying only. You can also use that very sharp razor blade you mention and make a nick all the way down to the bare rock on the outside edge of his foot. That is sometimes all it needs to get a little bud going. All of these tricks are not surefire. I've had florida's and yumas leave a trail of little bitty ones and sometimes they leave nothing. It might be worth trying something easy going with such a beauty.

Tony

thanks for that info. makes sense.

problem is i dont use powerheads, i use a couple of large closed loops and there is no such thing as low flow anywhere. that I imagine is the reason I had such a hard time getting him to attach in the first place

he probably doesnt even really belong in my tank but he seems happy enough maintaining. I guess I am just going to keep him as is and show him off as everybody seems to like him.

[Tallinu]

target feed him a bit, when he's hungry he will be a bit sticky. Since you have a high flow tank you could take a tupperware or glad plastic container that is cheap and cut the bottom out of it. Place this around him when you want to feed to cut down on the flow in the area around him. Use a turkey baster, eyedropper or syringe and drop some food on top of him. Things I know they like you can try. Thawed krill cut into small pieces. ZoPlan brand dried Zooplankton. Formula One Marine Pellets from Ocean Nutrition in the small pellet size. let them soak a bit in a small container of tank water before dropping them on top. maybe five minutes. Thawed mysis shrimp. Feeding response varies. You can kick up some debris or blow some stuff out of your live rock and if he tries to catch it by funneling up you can probably feed him a snack or two.

Tony

[SAPseven]

If you really wanna cut it .. I'd suggest either cutting it in half .

or my preferred method.. takin a pair of snips .. and just cutting a chunk out ..usually doing it this way theres less chance of you killing it since you're not touching the mouth/guts .. i've done this a bunch of times... once the chunk heals up .. it usually grows a mouth after 2 weeks

then you can either let it attach on its own .. or glue it .. if you're going to glue it directly by the foot.. the shrrom will move on its own after a few days .. althought there wont be any damage to the shroom.. yur ganna have a spot of glue on yur lr .. so its up to you.

[flyyyguy]

Sapseven.......i think i might like that idea.
'
Have you done this to yumas??

You are talking about just cutting a little notch out of it and hop eit takes, and whether it does or it doesnt, the important thing is that its a small injury to the mother that most likely wont even hardly phase it....... correct??

If so, and you have done this to yumas.......how much do you think i should cut off??

[flyyyguy]

so like this is what you are talking about?? forgive my editing skills...i have none...it took me 5 mintues to do this...lol i couldnt figure out how to do straight lines...so you get a circle.

but you get the idea

[rynon]

Originally posted by Tallinu
Here are a couple of tricks you can try. You can if possible gently move or turn the rock so that it's positioned in such a way that he has to crawl slowly toward the light/orientation again. No severe positional change. You only want him to move a half inch at best over a couple of months. Hopefully he will leave some little bits behind and they will develop, albeit slowly in your tank it sounds like. You can also use a gentle current, a small powerhead specifically aimed his direction in an effort to make him move. You want the current somewhat low key so that he doesn't detach in an effort to get the heck out of there. So use a small powerhead from a distance to be a tiny bit annoying only. You can also use that very sharp razor blade you mention and make a nick all the way down to the bare rock on the outside edge of his foot. That is sometimes all it needs to get a little bud going. All of these tricks are not surefire. I've had florida's and yumas leave a trail of little bitty ones and sometimes they leave nothing. It might be worth trying something easy going with such a beauty.

Tony

I have seen this done with a Yuma before, it dropped a few babies while making it's way up the rock. So this can and does work. The tank I saw this done in was a NanoCube, low flow. Maybe you could go to the store and get a cheapy yuma and practice on that? I've contemplated doing the same thing but don't dare and mine is only worth $50 max. I may try the feeding thing and see if that works, or maybe just tilt the rock. I'm with everyone else who has said, DON'T SLICE AND DICE