Baby clam advice needed.

[Desolas]

One week ago I purchased this clam, I'm not keen on the idea of buying one so small, but I got it for almost nothing. It was in a dealer tank for two weeks under just 110W VHO; and the bulb itself hasn't been changed in probably 2 years. The clam is maybe 2 3/4" in total length.

I put it in my tank, underneath a slight ledge to keep it shadowed from my 250W MH and it seemed to do just fine and was looking great until this morning I noticed it has developed a hole near it's vent. It was also gaping somewhat.

The pictures below show the hole and it's overall condition as of 7pm tonight. It still reacts to light and movement just fine, and when a fish swims over it retracts. It just isn't fully opening now and still appears to be slightly gaping.

...the clam has moved itself more into the light, it is still on the sand bed. Since it has been basically light starved should I move it more into the light, or up higher in the tank? I think I shouldn't as I don't want to light shock it, but I'm not familiar with how sensitive to light shock clams are.

I also have not upped or dropped my food ration of phytoplankton, I had 10ml every other day. Nothing else in the tank appear stressed, and all of my water parameters are in order.

Any thoughts?

 

[Danables]

I have a clam with the same thing the hole happend after i cleaned it from those Pyramidellid snails. but is doing much better since i added more phyto i add 4 litters a week from my culture. so maybe add more phyto

 

[traveller7]

It sounds like it it moving toward the light but I would keep it on the sand bed out in the open for awhile and feed it a bit more phyto.

Good luck and it looks like it will be nice if you can stabilize it

 

[CLAMps]

i was just reading about this on another page today and thought i would share,the hole is most likely from stress,from shipment or a move or brushinggive him lots of light and mod current and it should heal within 2 weeks.............. "quote" Another thing that I saw once was an additional hole between the two normal openings. That happened due to transport stress and occured immediately after importation from Southeast Asia to Europe. The hole got bigger during the first two days after import, and even though I did not do any specific examination, I am pretty sure that it was caused by a bacterial infection. The clam (T. crocea) was put into my big tank under moderate light and it recovered within about 10 days. The lost tissue regrew and the hole closed. There was a scar visible, and the coloration was missing in the new tissue, but the clam survived. Had that clam been put in a dealerââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s tank and stocked under conditions that were less than ideal, I would not expect it to have survived. I would strongly advise you not to buy a clam in that condition."end quote"
this came directly from Daniel Knop author of "giant clams"
hope this helps
CLAMps

 

[Desolas]

Thanks for the suggestions. It appears to be doing better now, I will post a new pic when I can. The hole has "bunched up" and isn't nearly as obvious now, it appears to be contracting the hole together (as if to heal) so that is a good sign. I've been slowly moving it more out into stronger light and yesterday was it's brightest day and it reacted very positively. Not gaping, but open less than pictured above, but it's mantel was very full, healthy, and normal looking.

If it continues in this positive direction I will just assume light shock was the issue, that and being starved. The same tank I bought this one from had 3 others, I saw them yesterday and they are all within a week of death. So I obtained this one maybe too late, but we'll see.

 

[Fishguru]

Yes since the clam is so small it will need to be fed DT's or the like, until it gets a bit bigger. Baby Clams only use about 30% light for purpose of energy so they really need the food. I would feed it atleast every other day-Guru