Crocea on his (her?) side, now what?

[peerboerner]

All,

I've been reading this site for a while now and have decided to get a clam. I purchased a beautiful purple crocea from a wonderful LFS that anything but a typical LFS - they specialize in Coral Reefs, only sell real high end stuff, but I digress.

I have a 120 AGA with a LifeReef LF1-125 berlin configuration (sump and pretty strong venturi skimmer), 3 maxijet powerheads for circulation, and now for the critical part (according to my reading on this forum) the lighting: 2 PFO 175watt 10K MH with 2 110watt blue actinic VHO. Knowing what I know now, I would have probably purchased more intense lighting, perhaps 250w MH - but "live and learn".

Anyway, my clam was introduced about 2 weeks ago along with a fairly large sarcophyton, euphyllia (frog spawn), some xenia, and 3 mushrooms (forget the species). I placed the clam up in the rock work so that at most it is 16 - 18 inches from the MH bulbs. This takes into account the distance of the bulbs from the water's surface. I placed the clam in an area of the tank that, to my eye, seemed to be the brightest part. The clam was responding well, I thought in that the mantle was extending about 1 - 2 inches and the color looked great. Incidentally, I dose the tank with 2 tank with 2 tablespoons of DT's Phytoplankton every other day. While I haven't measured the clam, it is obviously larger than 3.5 inches if that helps any.

I noticed the clam gradually moving the orientation of its shell. It finally "bumped" into a nearby piece of live rock, which was not a problem, except that the clam's mantle was touching the rock and didn't look as nice. Sooo, I moved the clam into a more advantageous position. I did this yesterday. This morning, I looked at my tank and the clam is laying on its side. The lights aren't on yet, though the mantle looks like it normally does when the lights are off - somewhat retracted but still out.

My question: Should I reposition the clam again or should I just let it "do its thing?". Hope you can help.

 

[Cyberchef]

You can repostition the clam as many times as you like, but it will keep moving on it's own until it's happy.

 

[rmckee22]

I just had this same problem with my 4" crocea. He would always lay on his side no matter where I put him in the sand.I read somwhere in here that they like to be against a hard bottom surface and if they are in the sand they may lay on there side. My sand bed is around 3", so I dug down to the bottom, so that his shell was against the bottom of the glass, then pushed the sand around him and he seems to like that. He has not moved since

 

[peerboerner]

I think he's happy now!

I think he's happy now!

All,

Thanks for the prompt feedback! I "averaged" your feedback and decided I'd reposition him in the rocks "a little" rather than leaving him on his side, but I also decided not to keep moving him if he toppled over again. It's been 3 days or so and he really hasn't moved much.

Here's a picture looking right at him:

And now one from the side:

Okay, he's not as awesome as some of the others I've seen on this site, but I still think he's pretty cool.

Thanks again all.

 

[peerboerner]

let's try those pictures again... still learning

let's try those pictures again... still learning

As if learning about reefs and clams wasn't enough, now it's digital photography, web publishing, and embedded image tags for ReefCentral.

Here we go again:

Side View:

Front View:

Ahh, the wonders of the Preview Reply button. This time things look better. Like I said, not the best clam ever posted, but I like him!

Thanks again for your insight and help.