chroniccoral35
Member
I am acclimating a beautiful clam I picked up at my LFS today, just one question...do they prefer sand bed? or can I put him on a rock thats on the sandbed? and how long should they be acclimated for?
Clam Question
- Thread starter chroniccoral35
- Start date
coral keeper
Active Member
I acclimated mine for about 30 min. IMO sand bed is better.
nano reefer
Active Member
put him in the sandbed, and a rock underneath him. it will allow his foot to attatch to the rock and then you can put him in the rockwork. they do better in the rock, but if you keep him in the sand there will be fewer problems.
wangotango
Active Member
IMO Squamosa and Derasa should be on the sand, but Croceas and Maximas should be on rock. Sine they're more light demanding they should be up higher anyway.
-Justin
-Justin
candycane
Active Member
IF I ever get clams in, which is VERY seldom, I acclimate for about 9 minutes tops. The only reason is because most of these clams (maximas and croceas) spend a good deal of time out of water or getting rained on - so they are kind of use to "drastic" water changes. That doesn't mean you will have the same luck with it though.
When it comes to placement; NEVER will getting a clam to attach to something in the substrate and then moving it guarantee that it will work. The clam may attach to it in the substrate because it is happy. Then moving that piece of rock up higher, may cause it to drop anchor and take a spill down the rocks. Sometimes it is all based on luck if a clam will attach to a piece of rock where you place it.
Substrate is kind of good because it is starting the clam out where it won't be falling all the time in the event that it is a "mover". Only issue with that is the depth of your sand bed. A clam will stick it's foot out and feel around for the bottom (they really don't care how deep it is). They will literally burrow themselves down to the point where they can grab ahold of the glass. If this means sucking in sand and blowing it out every now and then, the clam doesn't care; but it will still stress the clam out over time.
In the long run, clams just want flat smooth surfaces. They can still sense and feel (this is why they retract if you touch their mantle or foot). It will attach to the bottom of a tank though even if it is not what is best for it at first. What kind of clam is it anyways? Each one has a different attachment temperament as well.
Edit: Only recently have I been noticing that clams placed on small micron sized sand, may not be good for the clam. It seems they can actually pull the sand up into their body cavity and cause damage to their internal organs or even byssal organ in the process; this is only usually if they move around a lot. I would go further into it, but really I have no IDEA if it is completely true yet or if the sand is coming from somewhere else.
When it comes to placement; NEVER will getting a clam to attach to something in the substrate and then moving it guarantee that it will work. The clam may attach to it in the substrate because it is happy. Then moving that piece of rock up higher, may cause it to drop anchor and take a spill down the rocks. Sometimes it is all based on luck if a clam will attach to a piece of rock where you place it.
Substrate is kind of good because it is starting the clam out where it won't be falling all the time in the event that it is a "mover". Only issue with that is the depth of your sand bed. A clam will stick it's foot out and feel around for the bottom (they really don't care how deep it is). They will literally burrow themselves down to the point where they can grab ahold of the glass. If this means sucking in sand and blowing it out every now and then, the clam doesn't care; but it will still stress the clam out over time.
In the long run, clams just want flat smooth surfaces. They can still sense and feel (this is why they retract if you touch their mantle or foot). It will attach to the bottom of a tank though even if it is not what is best for it at first. What kind of clam is it anyways? Each one has a different attachment temperament as well.
Edit: Only recently have I been noticing that clams placed on small micron sized sand, may not be good for the clam. It seems they can actually pull the sand up into their body cavity and cause damage to their internal organs or even byssal organ in the process; this is only usually if they move around a lot. I would go further into it, but really I have no IDEA if it is completely true yet or if the sand is coming from somewhere else.