Clams

[BigIan]

The Mrs and i both really want a clam ay suggestions as to what species. would be good for a small tank and beginners?

 

[SkiFletch]

Still got the 250watt Halide? If so, I'd suggest Tridacna Derasa or Tridacna Crocea. Try and place it centrally directly under the halide, and especially if you get the Crocea, put it in the rockwork. If you can find a good spot for it to balance, its foot will grab on . Make sure when purchasing the clam to inspect for any signs of pyramellid snails on its underside (or snail eggs). Make sure you select one that responds to shadows and is open and displaying its mantle properly. In order of difficulty of rearing, from easiest to hardest is Derasa, Crocea, Squamosa, Maxxima. Size from smallest to largest is Derasa, Crocea, Maxxima, Squamosa. Also remember when purchasing to pick one with a shell length of at least 3" but prefferrably 4" as at this size the clam's vascular system is well developed and it can photosynthesize much better.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

oh i want a crochea..... that's purdy!!

saw an absolutely beautiful clam this weekend, stunning specimin opened and shut straight away when you held your hand over, looked so healthy and gorgeous. had my heart set on it but we weren't sure the species....... was a maxima though and would therefore take over our tank

what sort of risk would we be taking if we got one under 3"..... never seen one round here over 2" so while we can hunt if we just can't get a big one then what extra would we have to do to make sure it survives?

 

[stang1]

Miss Wiggle, I'm certain that Dobbies in Bletchley have fairly good size clams. We were looking at some the last time we popped in there. Not sure how far a drive it would be for you but might be worth giving them a ring.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

milton keynes?

that's a fair old trek, 4/5hr round trip

 

[stang1]

Sorry Alice, geography has never been my strong point!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Sorry Alice, geography has never been my strong point!

he he don't worry it's far from mine, i just put it in rac routeplanner that tells me how long it'll take in the car, then knock a bit off cos i don't drive at 60mph all the time!

 

[stang1]

Sorry Alice, geography has never been my strong point!

he he don't worry it's far from mine, i just put it in rac routeplanner that tells me how long it'll take in the car, then knock a bit off cos i don't drive at 60mph all the time!

I think I'll use that from now on!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i can't get around with technology, use that before i set off to plan journeys a bit, then sat nav so i don't get lost. useless without it!

 

[andywg]

what sort of risk would we be taking if we got one under 3"..... never seen one round here over 2" so while we can hunt if we just can't get a big one then what extra would we have to do to make sure it survives?

Under 4" and the mantle is not large enough to support a zooxanthellae colony of the requisite size to supply the bulk of the food to the clam. As a result it has to filter feed on suspended food items.

Phytoplankton can be offered, though I recall that the best food is nitrogenous waste for them to filter out (obviously not what you want to have in your main tank). I have heard of people removing the clam and placing it in a small tank with plenty of nitrogenous waste to feed and thus keep the clam seperate. This appears to no longer be necessary with improvements in phtyoplankton products.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah Ian said something about them actually liking some nitrate content in the water so we thought we'd maybe get one before we set the sump up as one of the things we want it to do is get rid of the nitrates. they're not shocking now test consistently around 15-20ppm (although that being said i just realised i haven't done a test since we set the fuge up which may have changed thngs)

when you say feeding phytoplankton... we have a few frozen invert foods that we're feeding until the fuge is established, one's cyclops and i can't remember what the other is. Is that suitable or have I misunderstood what you've said or what the food we have is?!

 

[andywg]

Phytoplankton is the one of the smaller foods, often put in for suspension feeders (like feather duster worms). It is the plant like plankton which utilises light to grow (and is in turn eaten by larger zooplankton). It is essentially microscopic food that comes in a liquid format to then be filtered out of the water.

It can be grown live, or Kent Phtyo-plex is very good, though the national importer of the stuff has had a row and dropped Kent's stuff, so many lfs are starting to have trouble getting it.

Some clams will allow you to spot feed them with small foods, such as brine shrimp and smaller, but many will just eject them straight back out.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ooooh i get you know, sorry for my stupidity it's monday morning

you can grow your own can't you, sure Ian's mentioned kits for them similar to brine shrimp hatcheries. could we grow some in the fuge if we got a starter culture?

do you target feed with it or just stick it in the tank?

 

[andywg]

Growing your own wouldn't be done in the fuge as you grow it in a mixture of water and baby-bio liquid plant fertiliser. You get a starter culture and every so often take out half the bottle and top the rest with water and fertiliser.

The culture growing is done with an amount of fertiliser (though I forget how much exactly) in a 2 litre coke bottle. Have an air line going in to bubble int there to create movement and shine a light on it.

I prefer just to buy it and dump it in the tank, but I am a very lazy aquarist.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Growing your own wouldn't be done in the fuge as you grow it in a mixture of water and baby-bio liquid plant fertiliser. You get a starter culture and every so often take out half the bottle and top the rest with water and fertiliser.

The culture growing is done with an amount of fertiliser (though I forget how much exactly) in a 2 litre coke bottle. Have an air line going in to bubble int there to create movement and shine a light on it.

I prefer just to buy it and dump it in the tank, but I am a very lazy aquarist.

ha ha fair enough. i was having this discussion about Ian last night, he wanted to set up a brine shrimp hatchery to save us money. But we have a very small house, so it's just yet more clutter and things to look after when the outlay of just getting brine shrimp from the lfs is just a couple of quid a month so hardly bank breaking.

Is the Kent Phtyo-plex the only brand, can you recommend any others that are decent in case we can't get hold of any?

Thanks for the help by the way.