Crocea Placement, Gaping

[pogodzib]

I bought a new 3" Crocea clam at a LFS a few days ago. It was gaping slightly at the store, but has gaped significantly more since I got it home. I know I probably shouldn't have bought it with the slight gaping, but I was told that it would recover within a couple of weeks with spot feeding. It looked a little better last night than the first couple of days. Below is a picture from the first day in my tank.

My questions are:

Should I be worried about the Crocea gaping or will it be fine given adequate lighting and bi-daily spot feedings?

My tank has 3-250w MH and 2-140w VHOs sitting 4" over the water. The MH's run for 6 hrs/day and the VHOs run for 11 hrs/day. The clam is currently near the bottom of my tank (24") height. Is the clam getting enought light at its current location or should I raise it up higher?

 

[mbbuna]

at 3" the clam doesnt require any additional feeding other then the light its getting. clams do filter feed but they do this slowly all day long. the term "spot feeding" scares me. it makes me think of people putting a turkey baster up to the in-current syphon and squirting phyto or what ever into the clam, i hope your not doing that. if you feel you must feed the clam just add a small amount to the tank water.

the clam may be fine where it is but if it starts to darken or turn brown you may need to move the clam up closer to the lights. i wouldn't worry to much about the in-current syphon being open wide, its very common for Croceas to do this.

 

[pogodzib]

The two methods that I usually heard about for "spot feeding" clams is either placing them in a bowl of tank water for 30 minutes with phyto added or placing a 2 liter pop bottle with the bottom cut out around the clam and add phyto into the bottle. Either way has its downsides. So far, I did the pop bottle thing once, and then have just been adding DT's to the tank every other day.

I knew that it is common for Croceas to open their intake siphon farther than other types of clams, just did not know how much. If it starts to darken or turn brown, I will definately raise it closer to the lights.

 

[critterkeeper]

Opening the siphon is normal. It's when the siphon is wide open BUT the mantle isn't extended that you shoudl be worried. Your clam looks fine to me.