Interested in Keeping A Maxima Clam

Les

New member
Hi,
I have a 55-gallon reef that has been up for about a year and a half. It is stocked with; scopas tang, flame angel, 2 ocellaris clownfish, purple fire fish, Dispar Anthias. As far as corals go I have a Colt, 2 toadstool leathers, GSP, mushrooms, xenia, maze brain, anthelia, Lemnalia, some sort or brown polyps, and a condy sea anemone. My lighting is 1 175 10k bulb on a 400 watt MH ballast. My pH is around 8.4 and my Ca is at 500. Now I've tried to keep two Acropora frags, but both were killed by my Flame Angel nipping at them. I want to get a Maxima Clam, but I am worried about the Flame Angel nipping at that as well. Do you think it would be best to sell the Angel back to the LFS? and if so would it be possible for me to try to keep a Coral Beauty? or do you think that the Coral Beauty might nip as well?

Thanks,
Les
 
Hmmm, coral beautys and flame angels will pick on clams. Even if they don't kill the clam, they will pick on them enough to stress them to death. Many people have had dream specimens that don't pick on anything, but you can't exactly go and order one of those :) The fact that your FA killed the acros does not bode well for him treating a clam nicely.

If it was me, I'd take the FA back and get a clam! I'm curious about your lighting....you're running a 175w bulb on a 400w ballast? If you're just running a 175 with your size tank, make sure the clam get's a nice home close to the light (providing he's properly acclimated to the light from what he was used to before)
 
Thanks for your reply.
Regarding the lighting. When I first set up my tank I bought a 400 watt MH ballast with a 65k bulb off ebay. After a while I decided to buy a 400w 10.000k USHIO bulb from Hellolights.com. I had the bulb running for about 2 to 3 months when it burned out. So I e-mail Hellolights and told them, and they said I should just return the bulb and they would send me out a replacement. So I received the replacement bulb, which was not the same USHIO that I had originally ordered, but I decided to use it. Well after about 3 months with that bulb, it burned out while I was at school one day. So my dad ordered a 175w 10,000k bulb(not sure what brand) from Hellolights.com and I have been running that on the 400w ballast for about 4 months now.

Les
 
Both the Flame Angel and the Coral Beauty can be clam-nippers- it really seems to depend on the personality of the individual fish.

It would be a roll of the dice- keep in mind you may have to remove one or the other.

Since I am more into clams and corals than fish, I would personally try to trade the fish for clams. It just depends on what you want to keep in the tank. If you experiment with clams and angels together, I would try an inexpensive squamosa or something- not a one-of-a-kind clam!
 
If you experiment with clams and angels together, I would try an inexpensive squamosa or something- not a one-of-a-kind clam!

Yeah, like the one in Palmettos signature. :D

I love that clam!

RE

ps I agree with palmetto. But if it was me, I'd experament. Keeping clams is worth far more then a 30 dollar clam... IMO :D
 
i have a coral beuty with a flame angel and clams

i have a coral beuty with a flame angel and clams

neither fish nip at my teardrop max,or my croecia
 
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