Calling all clam owners

[scotty333]

Tomorrow I’ll be getting my first clam in over 20 years of keeping reefs - tridacna squamosina
So, a little help needed please

1. Where should I place it ( maxspect r6 light , 8 years old)
2. It’s about 5cm so will it require food?
3. If I place it on the sand will it move and climb the rocks for more light?
4 ideal water params ?
5 flow rate

That’s all for now, thanks in advance

 

[tzabor10]

Place it in full light. Think of it like an acro. They are capable of making their own food. But phyto is always good. They do not climb. Placing in sand is not ideal. Ideal Parmeters are like that of SpS

 

[scotty333]

In that case I have the perfect spot on top of my rock 125mm from surface

 

[College_Reefer]

Tomorrow I’ll be getting my first clam in over 20 years of keeping reefs - tridacna squamosina
So, a little help needed please

1. Where should I place it ( maxspect r6 light , 8 years old)
2. It’s about 5cm so will it require food?
3. If I place it on the sand will it move and climb the rocks for more light?
4 ideal water params ?

That’s all for now, thanks in advance

1. I generally have placed all of mine on the sand or low on the rock structure.
2. Yes, they won't be fully photosynthetic till about 3 in long
3. No, they don't really move per-say. you just have to keep an eye on it to make sure its looking colorful and open and happy.
4. I've found they like water on the dirtier side as they are filter feeders. Not outside of normal mixed reef suggestions just not a nitrate reading of 0. Also be sure to monitor calcium because once it hits it's stride and starts growing, it'll suck up calcium so fast.

 

[scotty333]

Somewhere else I was told high up on rockwork, if I put it on the sand and it anchors will it be hard to move if it doesn’t seem happy?

 

[College_Reefer]

Somewhere else I was told high up on rockwork, if I put it on the sand and it anchors will it be hard to move if it doesn’t seem happy?

Everyone has their own way of going about placement and depending on how strong the lighting, the sand bed is enough or if its weaker light, the higher up spots will be better. What I would go about doing is get a "clam cradle" or a small flat rock and set it on that in the sand. That'll allow it to acclimate to your lighting and attach to the piece of rock easily without risking the clam falling off the rock work. Once the byssal threads attach to the rock, you can move the clam wherever you want to and just superglue that down. That'll allow you to easily break off that small rock and move it again if you want to.

 

[scotty333]

That sounds a good idea , thanks so much

 

[twentyleagues]

Squamosa Clams for the Intermediate Level Aquarist

For many aquarium hobbyists, acquiring and displaying a beautiful tridacnid clam is one of the most definitive milestones in their mastery of the art.

www.algaebarn.com

Do not move a clam once it has attached to a hard surface you can kill it if you do not know what you are doing, even if you do its very easy to hurt/kill the clam.
Acclimate it to your lighting especially if its small.
They need intense lighting and strong flow as someone else said think sps tank.
Parameters again think sps tank.
Squamosa do better on the substrate but can be placed on rocks.
You can add phyto to the water but their primary food is lighting.

Clam cradles are a great idea! Glad @College_Reefer said that.

 

[scotty333]

Great , I’ll definitely go with the cradle , thanks

 

[tzabor10]

Great , I’ll definitely go with the cradle , thanks

I found this at a LFS to place the clam on. It’s a piece of old coral. Try to snug them in place. Then they can put down roots or whatever.

 

[Uncle99]

Careful not to overlight that species.

 

[scotty333]

I’ll put it mid was on a cradle , thanks guys

 

[myles]

The squamosa clams that I have seen in the wild are from deeper waters. Crocea and maxima's tend to be close to the surface. I would be careful about over lighting.
Myles

 

[Jeremy_d]

My phone listens too closely to my conversations haha.

I was telling my wife last night about wanting to add a clam to the tank next.

This afternoon I get an email from Queen City Corals and they have clams in stock.

Now I get a email from R2R for this! Haha. And I haven’t looked up clams yet I just talked to my wife about them.

 

[Acroguy]

The squamosa clams that I have seen in the wild are from deeper waters. Crocea and maxima's tend to be close to the surface. I would be careful about over lighting.
Myles

Squamosas can take 6-700 Par easily. I doubt that anyone in their tank will overlight it.If they dont like the light they will regulate it by not extending the mantle as much.

 

[minus9]

Okay, there's some funky advice going on here. First, he stated squamosina, not squamosa. Squamosina are found in very shallow water, not like squamosa. I would provide a solid surface or very shallow substrate. They may stay attached or not. You'll want to make sure it gets plenty of full spectrum light, not blue heavy. I would shoot for 350+ micro moles or whatever keeps it growing. This you'll have to figure out based on the clam. Also, any clam that's in the hobby is 100% (if not more) completely photosynthetic. They acquire zoox when they are only a few mm big, so the whole idea that they need to be fed until a certain size is completely false, please stop spreading this misinformation, it doesn't help anyone. They do require nitrogen, so as long as you have fish in your tank and feed them, they have a nitrogen source. Phyto is great at feeding the whole tank, as this feeds the food chain, which in turn adds to the benthic succession of the whole tank.
Bottom line, keep parameters as you would for keeping corals happy and provide a lot of light, how much light is based on the individual clam. These are cultured in the Red Sea most likely, so they've been getting plenty of light. They'll get about 10" to 12" on average, so plan some space. Enjoy!

 

[Peter Houde]

Before you place it high in the rockwork, consider that if you are lucky and it thrives then it will grow ... big and heavy. You also want to be sure not to wedge it into rockwork that will impede it from fully opening when it is bigger than it is now.

 

[scotty333]

That’s all very informative thanks guys

 

[tee89]

1. - Most Clams can take high light but. I have always started by placing the clam on the sand bed. Derasas are fine with 100-200 par. Crocea and Squamosas need higher par for sure.
2. Live phyto, benepets, oyster feast but if its getting enough light I think it should do just fine.
3. If its not happy it will push out its foot and tip over. I placed my crocea on a large frag disk, it attached so now I just move the entire disk to high ground.
4 I keep my PO4 at 0.08 and NO3 at 10 - 20 no issues
5 clams can take alot of flow but not constant direct flow. So low - med high flow works.

 

[Acroguy]

1. - Most Clams can take high light but. I have always started by placing the clam on the sand bed. Derasas are fine with 100-200 par. Crocea and Squamosas need higher par for sure.
2. Live phyto, benepets, oyster feast but if its getting enough light I think it should do just fine.
3. If its not happy it will push out its foot and tip over. I placed my crocea on a large frag disk, it attached so now I just move the entire disk to high ground.
4 I keep my PO4 at 0.08 and NO3 at 10 - 20 no issues
5 clams can take alot of flow but not constant direct flow. So low - med high flow works.

My 8 inch squamosa is under a plasma light at 480 Par measured with an itc parwise.And it loves it.