Big problem with little clam

Opcn

Opcn

Member
I recently purchased a small maxima clam off of live aquaria, its almost 1-3/4ths of an inch long, and aquacultured, Off of someother forums I had read that clams will be fine off products like marine snow, only after I recieved it did I find out why live phyto is preffered and purchase some, I've been useing DT's for three days now but the clam seems to have no feeding responce at all to it, Or liquidlife bioplankton, or marine snow, doseing the latter of the two seems to lead to major red slime algea problems, but my cleanup crew can handle those, It still responds to light and any movement near it, but it has lost a bit of color, its being kept near the surface under PC's, and I'll be upgrading to more powerful PC's on the 16th, but it should be feeding shouldn't it.
 
how are you feeding it and what do you expect to see?

clams feed slowly all day long so if you just put a few milliliters in each day that should be fine.
 
I would not upgrade to more powerfull PC's, but I would upgrade to metal halides. This clam requires stronger light than what PC's can provide. The reason that it is losing some of its color is because of the lights that it is under.

You should definately be feeding it, especially with the lights that you have on your tank. As it is, a clam that small cannot get all the food it needs soley from light. I would continue to feed live phyto.
 
I was expecting to see it actively pumping water throught its body, rather than being passive. I am adding two ML's a day and I'm not skimming, so all should be well if he is infact feeding slowly. the tank is only 12 gallons, Upgrading to a 24 gallon aquapod for my Red Velvet Fairy Wrasse (which is precisely why I cant go with MH lighting, need a full hood). Also the Clam gets about 3 hours of full colorado sunlight each morning (which is fairly intense at 6500 above sea level).

But thank you, I'll keep feeding as I am.
 
When clams feed, they do not "pump" like you would see a heart beat pumping blood. The pumping is steady and constant thus you will not see actual muscle movement, not at least from outside the shell. In fact, if you see your clam "sneese" in a pumping motion is not an encouraging sign, usually that means something is irritating. Like Tyrosinase said clams feed all day long in a steady pace and will not "gulp" just because you just dosed some phyto into the water. They do not react to food like fishes to. So relax, your clam is most likely eating the phyto, just that you will not see it. And I agree with everyone else that instead of upgrade to more PC, save up and upgrade to Metal Halide, you need it with Maxima if you expect it to perform the full spectrum of coloration as the time you purchased it. If your lighting is dimmer than that of the retailer's, it is normal for the animal to loose some pigments regardless where you place the clam. So for the mean time just keep feeding DT's maybe 5mm twice a day, remember to unplug your skimmer and mechanical filter for an hour while feeding or your phyto will be filtered out of the system. And save up for that MH light.
 
I have no "filtration" of any kind, just a powerhead and a fuge (with chaeto) and live rock and sand, my waters nice and clear too, except for an hour or so after phyto is dosed.
 
i dont think its to hard to keep that small of a clam. Long as your water is pretty good and you have intense lighting. I keep a 2 1/2 inch maxima and he does great. " cute little fella ".
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6713740#post6713740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Brock Fluharty
I thought that all clams under about 2 1/2 inches needed to be fed foods like phyto?


Brock
Click to expand...

you are correct. until they get to about 3" there mantles arnt big enough to provide them with all the food they need
 
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