clam questions
- Thread starter wenszoo
- Start date
musty baby
New member
lighting - the more the better. MH preferred, vho ok, friend has a large derasa under t5s. Depends on the species as well. Have heard of them being kept very high up in the tank under PCs.
difficulty - in my limited experience, easier than sps corals, but not foolproof
special needs - if you're watching tank parameters like you should be (admittedly I'm not) you shouldn't have problems. Large ones devour calcium. Small ones may need fed (filter feeders, phyto, etc), believe the cutoff is somewhere around 2.5", depending of course on the light? Some fish will nip at the mantles. My lawnmower blenny does not.
Just my general take on clams, much more knowledge to be shared...
difficulty - in my limited experience, easier than sps corals, but not foolproof
special needs - if you're watching tank parameters like you should be (admittedly I'm not) you shouldn't have problems. Large ones devour calcium. Small ones may need fed (filter feeders, phyto, etc), believe the cutoff is somewhere around 2.5", depending of course on the light? Some fish will nip at the mantles. My lawnmower blenny does not.
Just my general take on clams, much more knowledge to be shared...
csammis
Mental Institution
First, the GIRS forum is probably not the best place to ask about clams, as RC has a dedicated clam forum that can answer all your questions very specifically. That doesn't mean we can't give our opinions though 
I agree with pretty much everything ryansholl said about clams except the feeding part...it's my opinion that clams should be fed throughout their life. They don't live 100% off of their photosynthetic zoanthelle (or however that's spelled). Tridacnid clams have a functional gut which would have evolved out if they didn't need to suppliment their energy source with food.
I have a derasa clam in my 10 gallon nano, 12" under 130 watts of PC. I dose Kent Marine Liquid Reactor as needed -- although I need to switch to B-ionic or a homebrew, or I'll go broke
-- and DT's phytoplankton every other day. In the month or so that I've had it, you can already see about a quarter-inch of shell growth on it. I daresay it's happy as...well, a clam!
I agree with pretty much everything ryansholl said about clams except the feeding part...it's my opinion that clams should be fed throughout their life. They don't live 100% off of their photosynthetic zoanthelle (or however that's spelled). Tridacnid clams have a functional gut which would have evolved out if they didn't need to suppliment their energy source with food.
I have a derasa clam in my 10 gallon nano, 12" under 130 watts of PC. I dose Kent Marine Liquid Reactor as needed -- although I need to switch to B-ionic or a homebrew, or I'll go broke
-- and DT's phytoplankton every other day. In the month or so that I've had it, you can already see about a quarter-inch of shell growth on it. I daresay it's happy as...well, a clam!musty baby
New member
I'll go along with that. What I could have said, and may have made more sense, was that until a clam is 2-3 inches it is an absolute MUST to feed. Don't think it's necessarily essential to feed larger clams, but of course any little bit helps. Don't have enough experience to say for sure either way.
Do not agree on your "evolution of a functional gut" hypothesis. Though it definitely gives an advantage to a clam, evolution of, or lack of loss of, any characteristic doesn't automatically imply necessity. A venus flytrap doesn't *need* to eat flies, for example, but when it can, it does.
Do not agree on your "evolution of a functional gut" hypothesis. Though it definitely gives an advantage to a clam, evolution of, or lack of loss of, any characteristic doesn't automatically imply necessity. A venus flytrap doesn't *need* to eat flies, for example, but when it can, it does.
csammis
Mental Institution
Actually it's not my hypothesis, I just agree with it. I was paraphrasing this, by Dr. Shimek: http://www.dtplankton.com/phytoplankton/articles/necessity.html
musty baby
New member
Good article. Still completely agreeing with you in regards to clams, it's just the "loss of organs due to lack of absolute necessity" statement I can't see eye-to-eye with
Anyway! Visit the link Chris posted. You'll learn more there than we can give you.
back to the mind-numbing, motivation-sucking project I call my thesis...
Anyway! Visit the link Chris posted. You'll learn more there than we can give you.
back to the mind-numbing, motivation-sucking project I call my thesis...
I love clams!!! I think all reef tanks need one if they have MH and a refugium. I have a derasa, crocera and maxima under 2 150watt MH and 192 watts of PCs.
The derasa is on the sand bed and growing very well almost doubled in size about 10" in length.
The crocera is about 16" from top and growing slowly about 4"
The maxima is also 16" from top, but hasn't grown much about 6".
I have used DT oystereggs and phytoplankton, but dont see much of a difference in growth, so I rarely supplement anymore. I have a refugium full of life and I think the clams get many nutrients from that.
Previous tank had only VHO's and that wasn't enough for the 2 clams that died.
The derasa is on the sand bed and growing very well almost doubled in size about 10" in length.
The crocera is about 16" from top and growing slowly about 4"
The maxima is also 16" from top, but hasn't grown much about 6".
I have used DT oystereggs and phytoplankton, but dont see much of a difference in growth, so I rarely supplement anymore. I have a refugium full of life and I think the clams get many nutrients from that.
Previous tank had only VHO's and that wasn't enough for the 2 clams that died.
