Lavender Squamosa

[InsaneClownFish]

Picked up this four and one quarter inch beauty at the LFS today:

 

[mbbuna]

be very careful with light accumulation with that clam. there is a lot of bleaching (loss of zooxanthellae) in the clam. good luck and let us know how its going

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Yes I was a tad worried about that since they had it under PCs How can you tell it is bleached, because in person I didn't see any signs...?

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8838046#post8838046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by InsaneClownFish
Yes I was a tad worried about that since they had it under PCs How can you tell it is bleached, because in person I didn't see any signs...?

first the central mantle is almost total white. then if you look at the lobes of the mantle you can see that it is very translucent with small spots of pigment. the pigment is from the clam, the white and translucent spots are where the zoox used to be.

clams can recover from this but at this point your clam is very vulnerable. i wouldn't blast it with light right now. i would shade it and over the next week or 2 slowly increase the light.

i dont feel that healthy clams kept in large enough tanks with fish that are feed regularly, need foods added just for them. but in your case adding some live phyto would help the clam build up some strength and just might make the difference whether this clam recovers or not.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

mbbuna, I will keep all that in mind, thank you. I also bought a nice teardrop maxima at the same time with some spotty bleaching. This is almost impossible to spot in a dark LFS under PCs. Also, I didn't think the bleaching was that bad- I'm guessing it's more a trick of the camera, but then again...I'm not as educated on what to look for.

Now I am curious, will the clam actually lose that nice lavendary blue purple color in it's mantle?

Honestly, in person that color is consistent..there is NO white like in the maxima.

I'm receptive to any assistance you can offer..

 

[mbbuna]

there's no way of knowing how the color may change. very often photos dont do our creatures justice, however the two large white spots i can see in the photo above are clearly bleaching.

why dont you post a few clear top down photos of the clams. some close up and some pulled back

 

[a4twenty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8838543#post8838543 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mbbuna
i dont feel that healthy clams kept in large enough tanks with fish that are feed regularly, need foods added just for them. but in your case adding some live phyto would help the clam build up some strength and just might make the difference whether this clam recovers or not.

very interesting point, while not being able to provide enough 'food' for itself we can / should suplement.

i love this board, it's great being able to draw from mbbuna's vast pool of knowledge.

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8840554#post8840554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by a4twenty
very interesting point, while not being able to provide enough 'food' for itself we can / should suplement.

right now the clam is pretty low on zoox so the amount of food the zoox can give the clam is going to be pretty low also. the clam just needs a little help untill the zoox can repopulate

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Well believe it or not just today the clam looked better. The mantle looked much less folded over...and the inner mantle actually looked deeper. I'll keep everyone posted, and I'll try to get some new pics this weekend. Tank you for your assitance mbbuna.

 

[mbbuna]

anytime ICF :thumbsup:

 

[capefear]

looks like a maxima