Marked for death???

[jonnywater]

So anyways, I was talking about this 2 inch maxima the other day. This one shop owner had the poor thing in around a 73 degree temp tank with little or no additives and probably under 150 watts of PC light. I go in this guys shop at least three times a week. After two weeks of watching this thing suffer and the mantle start to come apart, I decided to buy it and hope that it holds out till I get some Halides on my tank.
I am running about 300 watts of PC (actinics, daylight, lunars) on a 55 gallon that is on for about 14 hours a day (I dont want to hear it). I also STRICTLY maintain my calc at 460, my PH at 8.3, my KH at around 110 and my nitrates, trites, ammonia, phophates and silicates are all undetectable. The thing is only coming apart from the mantle on two ridges and I just hope it can make it 3-5 weeks. Let's all hope. I put him next to my derasa in hopes that he will make a friend, LOL. I got it for 10 bucks also.

 

[farslayer]

Your lighting is not enough, clams require MH lighting. Any chance you can get him under some MH? If he's coming apart then it may be a moot point

 

[murph145]

i saved a clam from my LFS it was under some VHO's at the bottom of a 26" tank and it was not lookin good losing color and gaping at the bottom
after being in my tank for a short time i noticed a great deal of improvement he has now grown quit a bit in about 3 months of time and its color is amazing it has 3 new rows of shell since i first put him in the tank
hopefully u can keep him until u get MH
just put him up high
good luck!

 

[jonnywater]

No, unfortunetely I can not. I tried calling local shop owners - and 20 or so people that i know that have MH lighting. None of them could fit him anywhere, were too lazy, or just didnt care. That is the reason i stuck him in my tank to see what happens. Hopefully maybe the little bugger comes back together and can stay good for a bit. If not, at least I gave him a better chance then the LFS - no?
I just know that I purchased a Yellow Fiji leather from another store that had some sort of rot on it and it had eaten a hole through one of the sides. Within 8 days it was completely better and has attached itself to where I want it to. I tend to be a coral "rescuer" because everything I stick in my tank always regenerates. Dont know about the clam though. It might be a Crocea clam also.

 

[farslayer]

Unfortunately a leather's lighting requirements are much less than a clam's. Sorry to say that the clam has no chance in your tank. If I had MH I would buy him from you, but unfortunately I'm running 2x96W PC on my 46G. Any chance another LFS would take him?

 

[jonnywater]

No, that is the first thing that I tried. I went around from store to store and even offered to split the cost with them and they could sell it for whatever amount they wanted too. Everyone said no. Kind of saddening.
All I know is the thing has been in my tank for 2 hours and has already attached itself to the substrate and opened nearly all the way so that its syphon is hanging out all the way. I just looked at it. And the lights arent even on. I gave him a little phytoplankton too. The only thing that worries me is the way that its, I cant think of the word right now (the blue part) has shifted from its curve in the mantle in 1-2 spots. I wouldnt rule out survival all together though. I have read and seen numerous success stories of these things surviving under PC light many times. As long as you get them young enough. And this little bugger is only about 1 1/2 inches.

 

[feixjai]

how about a pic? good luck with the clam.

 

[jonnywater]

I will keep bumping this until I get a decent camera. If the clam makes it that long. I purchased one that I sized to 600x400 (I know I need to resize to 500x500) and set at "high definition". The pics still came out blurry though. Something about the optics and the fact that there is not an optical zoom. I am just getting into the whole digitial camera thing.

 

[light10977]

send me the pic and I will host it for you. lightning10977@hotmail.com

 

[farslayer]

The problem is that a clam which is fully out is not necessarily healthy. They are like anemones with poor lighting, they make themselves fuller to increase surface area and obtain more light. I 've never heard of a single success story with a clam under PC. I've heard claims, but they always end with the clam suddenly dying after a few months. It's good that he's at least trying to attach and is opening, but he won't live off of phytoplankton alone. Any chance you could drop a couple hundred bucks on a single MH pendant just for him?

 

[jonnywater]

Not right now I cant. I can in a couple of weeks though. I think the biggest success so far is that this morning, well in the last few hours anways, he has restructured his mantle so that it is completely flush with the shell again. All the ridges are back to being filled and he is not that large, but a little fatter. Also he is capturing some suspended matter out of the water for some odd reason (I didnt think they did that)

 

[farslayer]

It's good he is responding. He is getting fatter to increase his surface area so that more light hits him. Anemones will do this as well, it shows he doesn't have enough light. Hope you can get that pendant, clams are cool creatures!

 

[miked0523]

A small clam under 3 inches needsto be fed because they are not big enough to get enough nutrition from light alone. Dont just squirt photoplankton into it either, Because this will clog the clams gills and eventually kill it. You also cant just put it in the water colume cut thetopff a 2 liter bottle and place it over the clam and squirtthe photo directly in to the bottle top and let it sit for a while that way you can be sure the clam will getenough food. Crocea clams also like to be on the rockwork.

 

[unleashed]

place the clam as high in the tank as possible make sure your cal levels are good also feed your tank cyclopseze it can filter feed from this I have found a few good sites for DYI lighting equipment if your interested in buying a less expencive MH set up feel free to email me at lyndog1@aol.com