Got a clam question? We've got you covered right here.

[hart24601]

I

Wow, that’s interesting. I wouldn’t have thought they liked so much! Looks like they will be moving up in the world. Should I move them up the rocks and the par scale slowly or just find a nice 250-300 spot and give them their forever home right away?

I put them in the 250-300 right away. They great thing about clams if they need to acclimate to light they just close their shell to limit how much they get, within reason.

 

[NanoBoxes]

My medium sized Derasa which has been in great shape since I’ve had it, broke part of its shell off over night or this morning. There is nothing large enough in the tank to do it, and I feel it probably opened/closed hard and struck it’s edge of shell against a rock. It’s a size able piece! I’m worried. Is it going to be ok? It looks ok, still open with mantle out, just different looking with the shell not supporting that area.

 

[NanoBoxes]

Current pic after breaking....

 

[hart24601]

While I have not seen anything quite like that you do see wild clams come in that clearly had shell damage and grew it back so if the break isn’t caused by underlying health issues or something else in the tank I bet it can heal.

 

[Futuretotm]

Could I have an ID
Thought it was a maxima
Hasn’t opened up completely - 48 hours in my tank
I’ve placed it between two rocks towards the top of the tank and it is quite secure there, could it be that it’s too tight for it to open completely???

 

[OrionN]

That is a Maxima. It is not too tight to open completely. If it does not open completely then there is something else that is wrong rather than wedge to tight between two rock.

 

[Futuretotm]

That is a Maxima. It is not too tight to open completely. If it does not open completely then there is something else that is wrong rather than wedge to tight between two rock.

Just a follow up
In an effort to open up more, he popped the rock out of place during the day sometime, thankfully the rock did not fall on the glass, Rock was epoxied at two spots and "solid as a rock".

 

[JeannieS]

My clam's foot has turned black. I inspected for any parasites and I don't see anything. It is still opening normally and I only saw the discoloration by chance when I accidentally knocked the clam over. Nitrate is 5, pH 8, dKH 8.3, phosphate .03, calcium 455, mag 1380, SG 1.026. I have been feeding it with puffs of phyto from a syringe upstream from its mouth. It's been in my tank a little over 2 months. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Jtwinn26]

My maxima clam all of a sudden has not been closing at night like it is supposed to. Any ideas?

 

[OrionN]

My clam's foot has turned black. I inspected for any parasites and I don't see anything. It is still opening normally and I only saw the discoloration by chance when I accidentally knocked the clam over. Nitrate is 5, pH 8, dKH 8.3, phosphate .03, calcium 455, mag 1380, SG 1.026. I have been feeding it with puffs of phyto from a syringe upstream from its mouth. It's been in my tank a little over 2 months. Any advice would be appreciated.

The darker color aroung the opening there is not a problem. The problem is that your clam is not growing. I will not last long if it is not growing. You need to find what is wrong and fix it ASAP. Goodluck

My maxima clam all of a sudden has not been closing at night like it is supposed to. Any ideas?

Pictures?

 

[JeannieS]

The darker color aroung the opening there is not a problem. The problem is that your clam is not growing. I will not last long if it is not growing. You need to find what is wrong and fix it ASAP. Goodluck


Pictures?

The clam died. How can you tell that it was not growing and what things would cause it not to grow?

 

[OrionN]

The clam died. How can you tell that it was not growing and what things would cause it not to grow?

Healthy clams have white growth rings on the edge of their shells. I will not buy a clam without these white rims. These white rims often obscured by the mantle, you must irritated the clam a bit the get the mantle to retract to show them as in the picture below. The tissue inside the shell should be full. When you look into the byssal opening, you should not see empty spaces, the soft tissue should be full inside the shell.
Hope this help.

 

[Anytka]

I have maxima and crocea clam, I have pretty bad GHA outbreak that I have been dealing with. I was thinking of treating the tank with Reef Flux , should I remove clams before I treat or they will be ok? Please let me know if someone had an experience with it. Thanks.

 

[OrionN]

I have never treat my tank with any chemical. Biological control and nutrient management is my prefer method of control. Sorry I cannot answer this question.

 

[JeannieS]

Healthy clams have white growth rings on the edge of their shells. I will not buy a clam without these white rims. These white rims often obscured by the mantle, you must irritated the clam a bit the get the mantle to retract to show them as in the picture below. The tissue inside the shell should be full. When you look into the byssal opening, you should not see empty spaces, the soft tissue should be full inside the shell.
Hope this help.

Thank you for your advice. I would like to get another clam in the future and this will help me know what to check for when I am buying.

 

[OrionN]

Make sure to treat and QT them for parasitic snails. See my sticky thread on how to recognize and treatment of these parasitic snails.

 

[OrionN]

How I deal with Pyram snails, the Giant Clam parasitic snails.

How I deal with Pyram snails, the parasitic snails that infected and kill Tridacna Clams

www.reef2reef.com

 

[JeannieS]

I will. Thanks!

 

[Appoloreefer]

Hello all you fellow clam keepers out there. I thought I would do a thread on clam keeping and all of the good stuff you will need to know.

One of the first things you will need for successful clam keeping are perfect water parameters.

#1 Calcium 380-450 ppm
#2 Salinity 1.024-1.026
#3 Alkalinity 2.5-4 meq/L
7-11 dKH
125-200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents
#4 Ph 8.1-8.4
#5 Magnesium 1250-1350 ppm
#6 Temp 78-82 deg F
#7 Nitrates 0
#8 Nitrites 0
#9 Phosphate < 0.03 ppm
#10 Ammonia <0.1 ppm

Other things that I highly recommend for successfully keeping clams are:

Read, read, read, you can't ever get enough info so take it all in.

Know what to do when you have an issue and have to ask a question, post pic's, params, and fish lists.

There is another thread here and it really tells a lot about how to keep clams and has many recommendations, once again read.

Now you may be wondering what kind of clam you may have right? Well There are many online clam ID pages but the one that I use the most is found here .

Do clams need to be placed in a Quarantine Tank "QT"? In my honest opinion yes they do with out a doubt. No matter who you get it from and how good their reputation is. A quarantine tank is really simple and fairly cheap to set up. The most expensive thing you will need is the light. But think of it this way, say you have 3 or 4 clams and want to add just one more. Now say that one more has a disease and it wipes out all your other clams too. Now you have just lost more money in clams than what a QT would cost. If you need to know how to set up a QT you can look at this thread and get some idea's.

Now lets say you did the right thing and did set up a QT tank, and while your new clam was in said tank you noticed that it was infested with Pyramidellidea Snails. Honestly they sound bad and the treatment sounds real painstaking but I honestly don't mind it. As long as you know you have them and do the proper treatment your clam should be fine. All you need is a toothpick and a tooth brush and get to scrubbing.

Some people will try and tell you that you need to feed clams. I believe that that is a false statement. As long as you have a good strong light set up you should be fine. If you still aren't convinced and would like to read some on the matter you can do so here.

And lastly I have compiled a group of video's with a bunch of clam info and if you are interested in viewing them you may do so here.

Can you use LED lights? I have a 48" LED strip that sits on top of the tank, would that be good enough for keeping a clam? I have a 125 FOWLR. Thanks

 

[DrHollyW00D]

@OrionN would you mind taking a look at my clam? Noticed this white spot tonight. It still retracts evenly to light changes. I think it might be PMD but I’m not sure. Any thoughts?