Is there any way to remove small barnacles from a rock without horribly mangling the animal inside the shell? I’m doing by best to very slowly, gently peel off a few live animals so I can put them under a microscope. The very tiniest of them are incredibly delicate and I’m not sure I can help them. …

Try slowly applying pressure with a knife (or some other tool) to the bottom of the barnacle. I’ve seen them pop off intact this way before but I’m not sure I’d call it peeling. As for reattachment, I wouldn’t think they could recement themselves. You could always glue them back on but that might te…

well, at least something can eat them if I put them back… At least I have the comfort of knowing there’s thousands more on the rock. I hope that removing a handful of more mature ones isn’t doing too much ecological damage, although I know I’m only doing it to learn and to collect data. For all I k…

Yeah as far as I know the barnacles won’t be able to reattach themselves afterwards, but yeah something while enjoy the snack! Where are these barnacles from? I may be able to help you ID them.

I’ll be uploading my finds this afternoon :) New York.

A thin bladed knife, applying pressure underneath the barnacle (Not on it) or a chisel, also underneath the barnacle. I just use my fingers if its sandstone.

To confirm what Thomas and Austin said, barnacles cannot recement themselves after being detached. For acorn barnacles like yours, maybe they could survive if you managed to wedge them between some rocks back on the intertidal zone, but I suspect they’d just end up getting washed away. Certainly fo…

Removing Barnacles

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Removing Barnacles

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