My First Clam!

Rockster2599

New member
Hi All,
Just picked up a lovely clam which I think is a crocea. Before adding it to my tank I inspected it and it had 1 pyramidellid snail at the edge of the mantle which I removed.
My question is that I bought it attached to a cup made of glued or concreted aragonite, should I try to remove it to inspect the underside for more parasites?
If so how?
 
pic will help. the way is to tilt the clam away from the direction of the cut, which needs to be made with a clean very sharp thin blade. should feel right, easy. throw away the cup. inspect carefully at night. highly unlikely there was only 1 snail.
 
quarantine that thing. u can use a razor blade to cut it. you can place the clam in a bowl of tank water and inspect it with a flash light, and using tweezers remove w/e you find. you may want to clean the shell with a tooth brush while you have it out, be careful around the openings tho.

good luck
and post up a picture!
 
Thanks for your help,
My problem is that because its in a cup its very difficult to get a blade underneath. Any suggestions? Ill post a pic up later when the lights are on and the flow is off, it looks better top down.
 
Ive just had a thought, If I take it off the cup what do I do with it then?

What I mean is if i want to be able to keep inspecting the underside, if I put it on a rock it will re attach right? Then I wont be able to keep picking it up.
I dont have a sandbed so if i put it on the tank bottom will it attach to the glass?
 
IMG00012-20120912-1403.jpg


Sorry for the awful pic
 
Ya take the cup off for sure and it will reattach i have had clams attach to the glass before but a rock in more ideal also it is not a crocea its a maxima and a nice looking one at that.
 
Just so I know,
My tank is lit by spots and the clam isnt isnt directly under a spot so I have some flexibility.
How do I know if the clam is happy light wise?
Conversely how do I know if it isnt getting enough light?

FYI it looks very happy at present.
 
Keep checking for snails. I had a loosing battle for 2 years. That is a beautiful clam. You will start to notice new shell growth. That's a sign its happy.
 
When my crocea clam gets less light than it needs (when I forget to lower my lights back down after tank maintenance) I've noticed it "reaching" by flaring its mantle upwards. It returns to a normal size with the mantle extended slightly past the shell when the light intensity returns to normal. I agree that a bright white margin of new shell growth should continually be apparent.
 
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