fed marine snow then siphon went huge

[ctopal]

I got a 3 inch Squamosa a week and half ago (my first clam) and it's been open and not bothered by anyone. I also bought Marine Snow to feed to it and other critters in the tank. I squirted some at its incurrent siphon about an inch away from it for the first time. The siphon went huge in the shape of a big O rather than its usual oval shape and stayed like that for a little bit. Is he not happy with this stuff or was he just trying to get more?

 

[mbbuna]

marine snow is to large for clams to eat.if you really want to feed the clam just add some live phyto to the tank. but at 3" your clam now feeds off of the light,you really dont need to feed it

 

[Snprhed]

Marine snow is pretty much straight pollution. DT is a live phyto (the only live I know of) and can benefit multiple species in your tank. Having just said that I would have to agree with mb that at that size its not necessary.

 

[ctopal]

thanks, this feeding thing seems to be controversial. I've also seen people saying you have to feed, no matter the size. At this point though, I've had many more people tell me not to feed. So I'm going to stop.

 

[GreshamH]

There's other live phyto's on the market and some have both greens and browns, unlike DT's. DT's has 3 strains, including the super thick walled Chlorella which clams and many other bivalves usually reject, but no browns which clams mainly feed on.

 

[Snprhed]

Who Gresh?

 

[GreshamH]

I don't think I can say, since I work for the company click on my little red house

 

[Snprhed]

I heard that Phyto Feast was getting sued because a lab determined that there was no live cultures in it.

 

[Snprhed]

bump

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Never inject anything into the inhalent siphon of a Tridacna.
Phytoplankton feedings can greatly benefit small (less than 2") clams. 'Marine Snow' isn't phytoplankton.

 

[critterkeeper]

Actually, they'll eat a broad range of things, including zooplankton and detritus, not just phytoplankton. But it is true that you should never attempt to "force feed" a clam.

 

[mbbuna]

clams feed on things in the 4 to 40 micron range.zooplankton is to large,dont know about detritus,maby some bacteria.but if you want to make sure that your clam is well feed,give them the right lighting

 

[critterkeeper]

Actually, there's a lot of zooplankton in that range. There is also a lot of scientific, rather than hobbyist, literature out there that discusses tridacnids eating zooplankton and detritus.

Don't believe it? Read any of these: 1936, Yonge (1936), Mansour (1946a&b), or Ricard & Salvat (1977). There are more...

 

[mbbuna]

in that range it called microzooplankton,zooplankton i think starts at 200microns,and as far as i know there isnt any Co.that makes a food with microzooplankton in it.

 

[critterkeeper]

I'm not trying to be argumentative but...
A) It's still zooplankton
B) Never said you could buy it, just said tridacnids eat it.

The point is, arguing that marine snow can't help clams because it isn't phyto is wrong. I can't say it will help clams, but if it doesn't, it's not becasue only phyto will.

Do you know of any lab studies that show that marine snow does or doesn't help clams? For that matter, do you know of any studies that quantify the benefits of phyto? I've never seen one. Never seen a study using yeast either.

BTW - if you're going by Shimek's article about bivalves only eating phyto, I can assure you it's wrong. For an example that shows otherwise, read Wong, W. H. and Levinton, J. S. 2004. Culture of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis (Linnaeus, 1758) fed both phytoplankton and zooplankton: A microcosm experiment. Aquaculture Research, 35:965-969. or any of the other references I've already provided.

 

[mbbuna]

where kind of splitting hairs hear but,im not going by Shimeks article.what im talking about is that the food that we can buy that clams will feed on. Phyto is just about the only thing,yes you can get yeast,but both of these thing are just hair algae in a bottle IMO.i don't intensionally feed anything to my clams because they get there food from the light(thru there zoo,and from eating the zoo)I've read the article that you've posted in the past,and I know that there isn't much current info on the feeding methods of clams,but that research is like 50 to 75 years old.im not saying that marine snow cant help clams because its not phyto,im saying it's to large for them to eat.and it dead,IMO just more hair algea in a bottle.