Clam help : /

Gdbyrd

Gdbyrd

life's a beach
I bought a crocea awhile back. It's been at least a month. I was misinformed from my LFS and told to put it at the bottom of my tank. It stayed there for about a week and a half before I found out from you guys that it needed more light.

In that time, it had started to white out quite a bit and overextending it's mantle(I had read that was a sign it wasn't getting enough light).

So I went ahead and acclimated it, now it's sitting on the top of my tank, but it looks the exact same. It's been up there for awhile, again, not real sure how long..but I woulda figured it'd be a better color. Also, it's still extending it's mantle really far.

Is there anything else I should do? was at a fish shop in San antonio today and they emphasized that I almost HAVE to feed it phyto'plankton or it will die, but I recollect you guys saying it would be fine on it's own..so just want to make sure. He was also talking about target feeding them, so it makes me feel like he didn't know what he was talking about(I've read that's a really bad thing to do)

What can or should I be doing? Or do I just need more patience?
 
What kind of lighting do you have? Did you gradually move it from the bottom to the top so it could acclimate to the higher lighting? Being that it's only been under the higher light for about 2 weeks, I would wait it out. What's your nitrate level?

I bought my maxima about 5 yrs ago. It's about tripled in size and I never fed it.
 
Its under a 250 watt mh pendant 14k. I acclimated it slowly over some time. I'm going to have to dig around through my old posts to try to figure out how long its been up there. It really feels like its been there at least a month but maybe I'm mistaken.

But aside from light and a decent current there's nothing else I can do right? Nitrates are at 0 and have been for two or so months.

I'm stil getting some dust storms occasionally in my tank, should I move the clam around at all to make sure it didn't get anything in it?
 
It should be able to handle 'dust storms' if it is healthy. It will expel any particles that it gets inside it.

I have had one for two years that has doubled in size too, and I have not directly feed it. Good luck with it.
 
I have a big squamosa clam and have never fed it. As mentioned above just see how it goes. Can I ask what is causing the dust storms?
 
Sand storms are caused by too much flow I guess. Last time I added it up I think I had about 100 to 150x turn over.

Sometimes the paths of current hit eachother just right and it'll kick up some sand. Actually quite a bit of it. I frequently have to clean out my hob skimmer because the bottom gets a noticable later of sand on it.

I've tried repositioning stuff, downgrading pumps, etc. Its a whole lot better than it had been but damn near impossible to totally get rid of. Problem when you have a tall tank I guess.
 
slow down the flow some that could be the big problem there. i was pushing about 70-80x and that has proven to be too much for my tank
 
Hmm. Honestly don't know how to do that. To get good enough flow to cover the total tank I need those modded pumps. Otherwise it was going to be like 5 or 6 pumps to be able to get movement throughout the whole tank. I'm constantly messing with it though but it never seems to work out just right.
 
I had a adopted a clam awhile back that wasn't getting enough light it was almost completely white. I slowly moved it under some halides and I would guess that it took about 6-8 months before its colors started coming back.

You shouldn't need to feed it just make sure that your calcium and alk levels are good.

How old are your bulbs?
 
They're really new, I'm complaining about the color of them in that other thread you helped out with earlier, the ushio 14k.

Its only white in the center. But it took like 2 weeks. Figured it would get color back quicker.
 
Another thing I'm noticing about this clam is that it hasn't attached itself yet to anything. It's again, overextending it's mantle. It looks brown instead of the bright blues it was when I bought it. Could it not be happy with where it's at? I have it at the very top of my tank on a flat rock. Lemme snap a picture of it and post that too. See if that'll help.

You can also see how yellow things are under the Ushio bulb.
 
Last edited:
Clampics001.jpg
 
The color of the clam could be getting washed out by your yellowish bulb.

Have never tried clams yet but have always wanted too. Good luck and hope everything does good.
 
I had a 20K bulb in there for a little while and there wasn't much difference in color. Even under room light the darn thing is brown : /
 
That mantle dont look over extended to me.Actually looks just about right for a healthy clam.
And I'm betting the color is from the bulb.So +1 Bj.
 

Similar threads

F
New to marine.
Replies
2
Views
1K
kbuser92
kbuser92
Mike
We're Back!
Replies
0
Views
625
Mike
Mike
Sashimi
75 gallon LPS 2.0 suggestions
Replies
0
Views
2K
Sashimi
Sashimi
Sashimi
75G LPS 2.0
Replies
2
Views
2K
Sashimi
Sashimi
Stellabl3u
Just looking for some pointers or advice
Replies
0
Views
2K
Stellabl3u
Stellabl3u
Back
Top