AttackDonut
New member
Yes I know, it's bloodly late to ask *now*..but better late than never I suppose.
I did the massive screwup of course, and bought a clam on sale.
Brown, drab, dull. Cheap.
In my 29 reef (110watt mix of 10k daylights and the blue jobs PC light, plus a dedicated 15 or 18 watt actinic) he is there in full exposure ot the light.
I think it's a squamosa as per the drab colours and massive scutes on the sides of his shell. About 4" in length.
So some months go by and I'm watching him. Seems to be normal. But taking a fresh look at him brings up several points:
Mantle extension is about 2" all around during the day. At night he's practically closed (all mantles retracted)
Massive colours start showing up, purples, blues, yellows, eye spots. All brown and drab colours gone.
Responds to my walking in the room by "clamming" up, then re-opening after some minutes go by.
Here's the parts that worry me:
He won't sit still. I've got ~2 inches of live sand stuff on the bottom (live rock bits, live sand, etc) and I stated him on the right side of the tank and everyday he moves a little more to the left. First his moouth was facing me, now it's 180 degrees in the other direction.
The little frilly bits around his mouth are extended, but his mouth is open wide, not circular, but more of an oval with all the frilly bits extended.
I fear this is "gaping" but I cannot find any pictures to determine this.
His shell has added ~3/4 of an inch to it, with new scutes appearing and very small tube worm/feather dusters around, I suppose the growth is a good indication.
His shell is open *wide*, way wide. With the mantle extension and the open shell he's probably 8" across. All the pics I have seen don't show them this wide, is this good or bad?
Levels in the tank are fine and the fish (firefish) are fine. Purple corraline algae is growing rapidly, no unwanted algae, and the 6 lined wrasse and bi-colour blenny leave him alone. The small peppermint shrimp are okay as well with him.
Only drawback to the levels if I cannot get an accurate nitrate reading. The liquid Aquarium Pharmaceuticals stuff says 20-40ppm. The Seachem test measures (as near as I can tell, the colours never seems to match up right) 2 ppm and the Aquarium Systems FasTest (SeaTest?) seems to come in the 5 ppm range.
The brown polyps seem to do okay (I think I see new growth) but the mushrooms (blue) went from huge to penny size over the course of a year. The leather died, but new growth of leather have sprouted aorund the old one, it's entirely possible it was dying when I got it (the shops around here suck) but I may have burned it with the lighting.
Right, enough with the rambling, I'm concerned with the clam, is he doing fine or do I need to help him out somewhat?
Skimmer, RO water changes, powerhead for motion and Magnum filter all on back.
I did the massive screwup of course, and bought a clam on sale.
Brown, drab, dull. Cheap.
In my 29 reef (110watt mix of 10k daylights and the blue jobs PC light, plus a dedicated 15 or 18 watt actinic) he is there in full exposure ot the light.
I think it's a squamosa as per the drab colours and massive scutes on the sides of his shell. About 4" in length.
So some months go by and I'm watching him. Seems to be normal. But taking a fresh look at him brings up several points:
Mantle extension is about 2" all around during the day. At night he's practically closed (all mantles retracted)
Massive colours start showing up, purples, blues, yellows, eye spots. All brown and drab colours gone.
Responds to my walking in the room by "clamming" up, then re-opening after some minutes go by.
Here's the parts that worry me:
He won't sit still. I've got ~2 inches of live sand stuff on the bottom (live rock bits, live sand, etc) and I stated him on the right side of the tank and everyday he moves a little more to the left. First his moouth was facing me, now it's 180 degrees in the other direction.
The little frilly bits around his mouth are extended, but his mouth is open wide, not circular, but more of an oval with all the frilly bits extended.
I fear this is "gaping" but I cannot find any pictures to determine this.
His shell has added ~3/4 of an inch to it, with new scutes appearing and very small tube worm/feather dusters around, I suppose the growth is a good indication.
His shell is open *wide*, way wide. With the mantle extension and the open shell he's probably 8" across. All the pics I have seen don't show them this wide, is this good or bad?
Levels in the tank are fine and the fish (firefish) are fine. Purple corraline algae is growing rapidly, no unwanted algae, and the 6 lined wrasse and bi-colour blenny leave him alone. The small peppermint shrimp are okay as well with him.
Only drawback to the levels if I cannot get an accurate nitrate reading. The liquid Aquarium Pharmaceuticals stuff says 20-40ppm. The Seachem test measures (as near as I can tell, the colours never seems to match up right) 2 ppm and the Aquarium Systems FasTest (SeaTest?) seems to come in the 5 ppm range.
The brown polyps seem to do okay (I think I see new growth) but the mushrooms (blue) went from huge to penny size over the course of a year. The leather died, but new growth of leather have sprouted aorund the old one, it's entirely possible it was dying when I got it (the shops around here suck) but I may have burned it with the lighting.
Right, enough with the rambling, I'm concerned with the clam, is he doing fine or do I need to help him out somewhat?
Skimmer, RO water changes, powerhead for motion and Magnum filter all on back.
