My first clam

iwishtofish said:
Well, I'm happy to be able to report the clam is still kicking. I guess I'm doing enough right to keep it going in this 15g tank, although I'm slightly nervous every day that something will go wrong. I'm just trying to keep things status quo for the tank, in the hope that we can make it to the next one!

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The clam loves to turn around at will, so I've just decided to let it do whatever it wants to do! The clown still stays close, but doesn't seem to nestle up top as much as it did.
Click to expand...

your clam is doing great! how big is it?
 
Well, we're at about 6.5 months now, and I think the clam has proven hardy. I haven't noticed anything to be truly alarmed about...it is very reactive to light changes and has finally attached to the bottom glass of my nano. It's still directly under a PAR38 LED fixture, but extends its mantle quite far. I'd love some input on whether this may indicate it is still light-starved, and whether or not I should consider lowering the light even more. There are about 18" between the light and the top of the clam. The bottom pic is short exposure - things look quite bright in person:

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Funny clam has rotated around (about 250 degrees) to the point where it is now touching the tentacles of the torch coral. I had already moved the torch coral once, but as the torch grows bigger and the clam moves, this situation was hard to avoid. No sign of a dispute or damage to the clam. Should I worry?

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Time for another update, I guess. Things seem to be going really well for the clam. It still moves around a bit, but that has slowed down. It still is hosting vermetid snails of some strange sort on it's shell. When I feed or blow up detritus, they spin their little webs, but it doesn't seem to bother the clam too much.

Look at this critter I just photographed. There are several on the clam. Yikes!

weird_vermetid02.jpg


Here's a picture I posted a good while back. I wonder if it's the same kind of snail...perhaps just growing now?

clam_critter01.jpg
 
vermetid snails, i think. highly invasive fast reproducers from a few to hundreds. physically break the tube. cannot cut it, gotta use some leverage and break it.
 
moliken said:
vermetid snails, i think. highly invasive fast reproducers from a few to hundreds. physically break the tube. cannot cut it, gotta use some leverage and break it.
Click to expand...

So far they've stuck to the clam...the white, jagged armor growth is new; as my nano tank matures, everything is starting to grow.

I have no idea how I'd get the leverage to break them off. Maybe superglue up the snout, but that is high risk with the clam's reluctance to stay withdrawn.
 
Beautiful clam, great to see it doing well!! All my clams have vermited snails and I've never had an issue, but listen to moliken because he knows best.
 
ange062 said:
Beautiful clam, great to see it doing well!! All my clams have vermited snails and I've never had an issue, but listen to moliken because he knows best.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much - I'm feeling pretty lucky about having success with this clam. The web from the snails don't bother the clam, but these ragged looking snails are growing right up under the mantle, and may become a real problem.

I agree that moliken has the expert knowledge, and I am always grateful to receive his advice. I just wish I could easily take it, in this case. I don't know how to get a tool down to the clam and twist off the vermetids without injuring the clam. I'm starting to toy with the idea of using stainless steel bone cutters to crunch them off; perhaps that way I won't stress the clams foot too much from twisting...
 
stainless will do the trick. btw, many people said to me to ignore the vermetids. they never did anything in their tanks. well, i did leave the bstrds alone. wroooong!
 
The tank has the beginnings of a dino assault, so to try to save corals I have resorted to running heavier carbon, and doing larger daily water changes. One other thing I've done is to shorten the daily lighting cycle to about 6 hours. I'm hoping this will not affect the clam negatively, as it is under pretty good light for that period of time. Although I've seen the corals react negatively to the dinos (perhaps to their toxins), the clam has not yet shown any adverse signs.
 
Long-overdue update...the clam is still looking good, although it just now finally settled down. Either it is tired of turning around, or it is just tired. I need to check my water quality and lighting, though, as it seems (a bit suddenly?) to be less reactive to shadows and a bit less sensitive to invaders. Mantle extension is still good, though.



Typically, it would have blown this hermit off its roof...
 
Well, the clam is now in its third tank - I set up a sumpless 40 breeder to replace the 15g nano. The clam position and rock look very similar now to how things looked in the original 75g tank.

I have a Chinese-made LED fixture 10-12" over the water - the LEDs are running at 2w without optics. I currently have both whites and blues at about 50%, not daring to go higher just yet. I figure I'll slowly make an increase though. I don't have a par meter, but this seems lilke a pretty good amount of light.

After going in this tank a few weeks ago, the clam has had a slightly more curled mantle; I don't know if this signifies any kind of stress or not. There was never any gaping after the transfer, which was good.







If I end up not turning the light up much higher, I may consider reinstalling a PAR38 bulb exclusively for the clam.
 
The clam keeps moving and expelling zoo because you're blasting it with too much light. I don't know why no one told you this. This is what they do when there's too much light and they aren't acclimated properly (same with corals).
 
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