Miracle Clam

[jim norris]

Yesterday I had a friend over getting some of my corals. I am setting up a 300 gallon clam tank and taking down a 120 and 65 gallon tanks. We remove a piece of liverock and to our surprise there was a 3 1/2 inch maxima lying there! Now this clam has had to be there about 6 plus months!!! He was lying on his shell. I say to my friend what do you think? So I reach in and he was ALIVE!!!! His color was still very blue! Now above him is a 400 watt Ushio but I do not see how any light got to him. The reason I think he is still alive is I dose my tanks with DTs and Liquidlife to the MAX! I will take some pictures of him tonight.
What's the chances????


Jim

 

[KevinM]

The reason I think he is still alive is I dose my tanks with DTs and Liquidlife to the MAX! I will take some pictures of him tonight.
What's the chances????


The chances, as you can see, are very good that a Max could survive on very little light if the food concentrations in the water were high enough.

Kev

 

[smiller]

That is a great story. I was recently wondering how little light clams could get and remain healthy. Although people always say that you need high lighting to keep clams alive you know that over the years corals at least partially overgrow clams where they end up getting much less direct lighting than what the once were used to. A branching acro could easily block more than half of the light that a clam once received. I guess you have proved, at least short term, that well fed clams can be kept in a low light tank. I say you put it back under the rock for another six months and recheck it.

When you say you feed heavy how much are you talking?