Clam with Copperband?

[mwlude]

What are you experiances with keeping a copperband with a clam? The copperband is well established (4yrs) and eats frozen food.

 

[mwlude]

I found out he likes clams so he is going to the fish store.

 

[snorvich]

Copperbands are iffy as far as being reef safe. Some are, some are not. Some eat aiptasia, some do not. Some eat, some do not.
Is there a common theme here?

 

[hgbarwick]

The ones that I have had do not mess with my corals. They just eat al of my feather dusters.

 

[marc price]

i have my ~4" copperband for almost 5 years. they're hit or miss as snorvich ~steve~ wrote above. of prepared foods mine only eats frozen or freeze dried brine shrimp and small bits of table shrimp. i haven't tried clams (don't want to encourage it), or mussels (too messy), but would guess that it'll like them too. in addition to eating amphipods picked from rocks it has wiped out all aiptasia's, x-mass worms on the porites coral and cluster dusters but never bothered my Tridacna clams.
i'm curious to know the size of your copperband and the size of the T. clam(s) it picked on?

 

[snorvich]

You can also try chopped up squid. This is very enticing to problematical eaters. Usually can be gotten at the fish counter of large supermarkets.

 

[mwlude]

The copperband was large 5in and the clam was 3-4in.

 

[marc price]

thanks, i suspected larger copperband/small clams (cbbf can grow to ~8"). although dietary deviations are likely in captivity, some species of large angelfish change their diets when older (larger), it's probable some butterflys do so too.
my copperband was ~3" when new (slow grower), and together with my clams which were as small as yours but are now about 10". i'm not that concerned (yet), but i'll be cautious when adding smaller clams.