How do I open the Ecosphere?

[roygbiv]

I have an "oval" shaped Ecosphere that I'm ready to open so I can get these four shrimp into their new, larger home.

A few weeks ago I managed to find a video online of where a kid used an X-Acto type blade to slowly work the glue out from under the sealing glass disk. I've been trying this, but the concave curve of the bottom makes it impossible to get the point of the blade more than 0.5mm under the glass plug, and then only on one side (it was set off-center).

I tried bending the last few millimeters of the blade so it could hook between the plug and the rounded lip around the bottom, but those blades just snap, and I'm in an office, where trying to heat the glue or the blade is not an option.

I'm not prepared to break the glass, for a number of reasons. I only have a Leatherman and a couple of blade tools at my disposal.

Now I can't find any videos about opening a live Ecosphere, and just finding discussions about it on forums is also not working out.

Any ideas?

[roygbiv]

Ah well... I started prying at it with the prying tool on my Leatherman. It chipped a lot of the glass sealing disk at first (and I had to keep my eyes closed as I have no safety glasses here. Eventually I chipped enough away that I started to crush the seal, and I could then press the X-Acto blade further to loosen up more of the glue. Then I could just crack the seal into peices and pull them off with pliers. Eventually I'd cleared the hole, and used cellophane tape balls to clean up as many tiny glass shards as I could (a lot of tiny shards of glass fell down into the Ecosphere though). I then submerged the entire ecosphere in the new tank, opening side up, and so far one shrimp has figured out how to escape into the larger tank.

There is one little guy though, who has been struggling for the last day or two. It seems like he molted, but some of the old "skin" is still attached to his midsection, and he can't dislodge it, so he just keeps sinking to the bottom and lying there for long periods of time, before swimming up and jerkily swimming around trying to clear himself. Hoping he pulls through.

[Mustafa]

I'm glad you figured out how to do it! There are several threads in this forum detailing how people did it by the way. I think some of them have links to videos.

How are the shrimp doing in their new home?