Livestock/rock Sale Question
 

So, I'm going to be putting most of my livestock (fish, corals, inverts, rock) up for sale, but I'm wondering what people do if corals are firmly attached to big pieces of live rock? For example, I have a beautiful green Toadstool (sarcophyton sp.) that's firmly rooted to a giant piece of rock. What if someone wants the coral, but doesn't want to pay $50 for the rock as well? Do I rip it off? *cringes*

Thanks in advance...I've had lots of experience buying corals, but not very much selling....en masse, at least.

Possibly try and chissle off a small piece of the rock?

I know I wouldnt have room for anything with large rocks attatched without rearanging everything....

Cant wait to see what you have to let go :P Ill be trolling all day to get first dibs :mrgreen:

Yeah, I'd either chisel it or hold out for a better buyer. Personally I'd rather have something like that mounted anyway. Leathers can be such a PITA to mount sometimes.

Depending on the coral and the rock, I may be interested. Do you have any pictures of it? I'd agree that chiselling the rock around the toadstool would be better than ripping it off.

If you do end up "ripping it off", use a sharp exacto blade or non-serated knife. They are easy to remove, and aren't usually too fussy about it either, but can be a real pain in the butt to remount. They like to heal over instead of attaching...

I've had a really easy time mounting leathers (toadstools especially) by slicing the bottom or stalk in a cross and then placing the sliced open part over wherever I want it to attach to...

I suppose thats what you mean by they prefer to heal over rather than attach?

Hey that's a great idea! I bet that works pretty well. When you just cut them off straight, the bottom tends to just heal over instead of attach to anything, and then it just floats around all over the place...annoying.

Kalifornia on this board showed me the technique when I picked up a euroreef off of him and he threw in a really nice toadstool, I took it home and did as instructed and it had attached to the rock I put it on completely within 48 hours.

I have since attached 3 others since with the same technique with the same results.

I also just used a box cutter to slice it nice and clean.:twised:

Thanks, all....but I wasn't really meaning to focus on the toadstool, per se...but more on the problem itself :) I also have a clam, some SPS, etc...that have encrusted on big pieces of rock.

The SPS I'd just bust off the rock. Easy enough to remount if it came to that.

I'd totally leave the clams attached though. Although odds are good they'll let go anyhow in the new tank after a while, but getting them to let go on purpose just seems sort of risky.