New clam Gigas or squamosa?

[ernordstrom]

Just got a clam today from my LFS for $30. I thought I was buying a squamosa but I looked online and it appears they gave me one that looks exactly like this one in the the link instead. It's looks like a Gigas. I have read they are a deeper water clam and that they need to get adjusted to the high itensity lights. I have the clam up on the top of my tank about 8" from my T-5 HO lights. Where will he be happiest on the rocks closer to the lights? or the substrate. He seems to be doing fine now. He is just beautiful. I will post a picture as soon as I get my camera cable back.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?ddid=5410&siteid=20

 

[cristhiam]

gigas, I'll put it on the substrate. but if he is open and looks happy just leave it there. They grow fast mine was about 3 inches and now is 5 or 6 almost a year.

 

[Peabody]

Honestly, I would give it to someone with a huge tank. THey get too big too fast. There's a guy in the SPS forum who had one grow to be 24X18 inches in like 18 months from a 6 inch clam!

 

[ernordstrom]

cool , when it gets bigger I will sell it or give it away ...

 

[cristhiam]

I'll do the same

 

[The steven liu]

If you have scutes on the side of the shell then it is a squamosa with unextented mantle. If you see no scutes then it is a gigas. Gigas can be slowly acclimated to stronger lighting and tend to like cooler water since it live in slightly deeper water (25 meter isn't all that deep). Anyways it'll do better with an actinic lighti than a full spectrum or 10,000k. Either sqami or gigas are pretty hardy and will grow fast with proper calcium level.

 

[ernordstrom]

Here is a pic of my new Squamosa...actually it turned out to be a gigas , I believe. How does it look> ?

Got it for $30..


<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/68152IMG_0460.jpg"

 

[cristhiam]

looks very nice!

 

[critterkeeper]

Steven liu - where do you come up with this stuff?

1) it's a gigas, no doubts.

2) ALL gigas that I know of are coming from farms, where they are grown in shallow water, or in very shallow on-land tanks.

3) they don't prefer cooler water, and they grow faster in warm water

4) 25m is deep - in fact it's deeper than any gigas has ever been found

5) they can live down to around 20m, but most are found in much shallower water and some are even found in intertidal zones where they are left exposed to air at low tide and exposed to full sunlight, too. They can do perfectly well with full-spectrum lighting.


ernordstrom - they can live on rock or sand. I'd say that it'll likely outgrow the spot you have it on - except that you don't have a lot of light. Maybe it'll take a little while.

 

[Opcn]

Gigas are still widely collected from the wild, and clams close up when out of the water, even gigas, if they did not they would dry out in the harsh sun, and they are most often found in deeper waters than maxima and crocea clams. They reportedly prefer the sand to the rock. In the wild they are found on sand the vast majority of the time.

 

[ernordstrom]

Thanks for all the inputs guys. I think the T-5's should be bright enough for him, heck they blind me... I can't believe how bright these suckers are and the power consumption is great too...I''ll keep everyone posted as to how he is doing...

 

[critterkeeper]

Opcn - if you know of a place where small gigas are being wild-collected and imported to the US please let me know. I haven't been able to find one after looking for over a year. Doesn't mean it's not happenining, but I sure can't find one. The only wild-caught gigas I've seen in that time was a huge one (maybe 15"), and that was just once.

BTW - my point about being in the intertidal zone is that - at some point just before they become exposed to air, they are wide open with 1" of water between them and the sun. Make sense? To add, the halves of gigas shells don't match up the same way other shells do, and the tissue is still exposed to sunlight to some degree even when they're closed as much as they can.

 

[The steven liu]

just to answer critterkeeper's Q I didn't came up with these stuff I did lots of readings and I personally have a gigas that has proven to thrive in a cooler water temperature. 76degrees. And in nature they are the deepest living clam among all photosymthetic clams there is no argument to that. Coral/clam farms in Indonesia and Thailand do not provide direct sunlight to their shallow tanks, the lights are filtered. There are picture evidences you can find out there. Just want to clarify that I am not BS ing.

 

[mbbuna]

T. tevoroa is the deepest. it can be found only around Tonga and Fiji at deepths of 14m to 30m. T.gigas CAN be found at deepths down to 20m but that is the outer limit of where they can be found, not where they are most commonly found.

 

[Julio]

keep in mind that you will need a bigger tank soon.

 

[critterkeeper]

Derasas are typically found at depths from 4 to 10m, but are sometimes found as far down as 25m, at least that's what Crawford & Nash (1986) and Lewis et al. (1988) say. Tevoroa is reported down to 33m max accordiing to Lewis & Ledua (1988). Gigas is third at 20m, and finding them deeper than 15m is unusual. The deepest I've ever seen them myself was at 18m, but Knop (1996) says 20m.

I've personally visited farms in Indonesia and Japan, and the fact that farms reduce the light using 50% shade cloth - to values that can still easily exceed 1000Ã"šÃ‚µE/m2/s - doesn't change the fact that gigas can and does live in shallow waters at times and must deal with being under full strength sunlight. They can and do adapt, and so can all other species of tridacnids.

As far as thriving at 76 goes, there is a proven direct correlation between water temp and growth rate - up to a point at which they'll bleach and/or die (around 31-32Ã"šÃ‚°C / 88-90F). (Lucas 1988 and Estacion & Braley 1988)

 

[ernordstrom]

Gigas growth under T-5's

http://images.snapfish.com/346498334fp344>nu=3245>2<5>675>WSNRCG=323357636235;nu0mrj

 

[ernordstrom]

Gigas growth under T-5's