Derasa Clam

[halamaya]

I jumped into things a bit to quick, I love the clams and got a Derasa Thick Striped. I have Corallife lights 260 watts all 50/50 coralife bulbs. The Derasa sits over half way up in a 55 gallon tank. Will he make it? Feeding marine snow is this a good idea? He seems happy for now with a moderate flow of water over him.

 

[petjunkie]

It's not enough light for it long term, clams are extremely light demanding and new tanks with aren't generally their best home. You can skip the marine snow, it's just bottled nutrients and not helping the clam at all. I would upgrade to at least 150 watt halide or higher if you want to try and keep it.

 

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by Halamaya
I jumped into things a bit to quick, I love the clams and got a Derasa Thick Striped. I have Corallife lights 260 watts all 50/50 coralife bulbs. The Derasa sits over half way up in a 55 gallon tank. Will he make it? Feeding marine snow is this a good idea? He seems happy for now with a moderate flow of water over him.
A derasa is not as light demanding as say a crocea. If you keep him with in ~6 inches of the top under the white lights he will like it more. Many people will bang you an that but I kept a crocea under pcs for two years and then sold him. You have to keep the CA+ up and dts phyto will help. IMO
Mc

 

[nereef]

i thought deresas had to be kept in the sand, since they didn't have a good enough foot to be placed on the rockwork.

 

[nietzsche]

these guys get big, and under the right conditions will double in size in 1 year. Not to say theyll get exactly 24 inches and grow exactly 2 inches a year, may be more or less on growth, and may probably be less that 24 inches. deresas like to be places on subsrate and not on rocks like maximas and croceas
average growth rate
Derasa-6 cm per year(2.3)
max size
Derasa-62 cm (24in)
this is for deresas and squamosas taken from ezcompany on --:
"These clams are much more forgiving in terms of light than the upper two tridacna species [maxima and crocea]. Assuming they are not placed in a nano due to the size they can reach, they will be happy under metal halides of some sort, but will suffice with vhos, or even power compact lighting. There is no exact number for the wattage of the bulbs, but the “safe” amount of lighting would be anything above 100 watts of compact fluorescents in depths of less than 20 inches provided they are directly under the bulbs. T-5s are recommended over your regular power compact lighting, and a Squamosa will soak up Metal Halide lighting very happily."

 

[nietzsche]

Originally Posted by NEreef
i thought deresas had to be kept in the sand, since they didn't have a good enough foot to be placed on the rockwork.
i always hear that too that they should be placed on sand, along with squamosas and i think gigas but not sure about gigas

 

[halamaya]

He is on a rock covered with sand, he hasn't tried to move yet. I thought the marine snow had Phytoplankton and Zooplankton in it, which the clams need until they get to 4 inches; so I read anyway. He is about 10 - 12 inches underneath the lights. Is there any way to maybe get some sort of spotlight on him?

Thanks again for all the help

 

[viper_930]

'Any Tridacna clam will be perfectly fine on the rocks.

 

[halamaya]

I now have 327 watts of all 50/50 lighting is this a good thing?

Looking to upgrade my other light bulb for anothe 10watts.

Hopefully this will be enough for him. The peice of rock he is on is over a foot in circle hes only 2.5 I think he will be ok for a while.

 

[nietzsche]

mine is on the sandbed, my crocea and maximas are kept on some rocks