OP
OP
That's crazy, I was just down there today and called, but they said no one could come in till their grand opening next weekend. :-(
Healthy clam?
- Thread starter JoJosReef
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OP
OP
Reallyh
Really hard to tell shell growth on these isn't it? How did you acclimate? What lighting do you have them under?all iphone unedited, ~6500K led. darker one is top down, also unedited just darker from zooming the iphone.
very last one is my wife's DSLR dramatic DLSR shot, don't ask me about settings, she's the photographer not me
dansyr
Active Member
Yeah the mantle is more on the inside with these. Salinity was about 31-32 in bag when i measured, so I did a 2.5+hr drip "water bath" style, bag in beaker inside a 5gal bucket. first hour was pretty slow, maybe 0.5-1 drip/second then remaining was fast drips, still discrete but multiple per second. more than 2.5 hrs because i got distracted a little bit. Basically skinz or orion's protocol, the one stickied i forget who made it sorry.
OP
OP
Sigh, snooze you lose. Both out of stock now.
dansyr
Active Member
Shoot them an email, I suspect they might be able to help you out if there are any others not photographed yet. I first contacted them with email before ordering and they were amazingly responsive.
edit: them = aquasd
minus9
5000 Club Member
Sorry, late to the party here. They had about 2 or maybe 3 that I would consider taking home. There were 2 or 3 that were completely closed up and didn't open at all. Hippopus don't show new shell growth like tridacnas do, mainly because the mantle doesn't extend beyond the shell. New shell growth happens on the inside mostly and usually doesn't translate to the outer shell like other clams. They described these as being much bigger saying that 3 squares of eggcrate equaled 2", but that was complete BS, as one square equals 1/2" and these clams ranged from 1 1/2" to 2" max.
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Looks good and great patternall iphone unedited, ~6500K led. darker one is top down, also unedited just darker from zooming the iphone.
very last one is my wife's DSLR dramatic DLSR shot, don't ask me about settings, she's the photographer not me
OP
OP
What were the criteria for which you would consider and which you wouldn't? Would being closed be one of them? Would a clam being closed not be possibly by chance when you came by? Particularly if newly arrived?
OP
OP
While we are at it here, does anyone have a good photo of a Derasa clam with nice shell growth? I would love to have that for reference, as I know what Maxima/Crocea growth looks like. Squammie shell growth would also be a plus for reference. Thanks everyone!!
dansyr
Active Member
here's mine (excuse recent issues with vermetid explosion). it's still pretty young, got it about 8 months ago.
OP
OP
Thanks, that's great.here's mine (excuse recent issues with vermetid explosion). it's still pretty young, got it about 8 months ago.
So this is the derasa I got from AquaSD (might have seen it in another post of mine) that died in a week and a half in a tank where most SPS, LPS and everything else is thriving. It came with a white band that I thought might be shell growth on one side and the other with nothing:
One hypothesis batted around was that it might have been on its side for an extended period.
Would it laying down on the white side result in the other side changing to green from light exposure while the white side had no algae/film growth?
I've been trying to understand what happened and what to look out for in the future.
dansyr
Active Member
yeah i saw that, i'm sorry. ever since meeting you during the reefcleaners group buy i've been enjoying keeping up to date on your build thread. You have a beautiful system!Thanks, that's great.
So this is the derasa I got from AquaSD (might have seen it in another post of mine) that died in a week and a half in a tank where most SPS, LPS and everything else is thriving. It came with a white band that I thought might be shell growth on one side and the other with nothing:
One hypothesis batted around was that it might have been on its side for an extended period.
Would it laying down on the white side result in the other side changing to green from light exposure while the white side had no algae/film growth?
I've been trying to understand what happened and what to look out for in the future.
the pro clam keepers know more for sure, but that would be my guess. like if it was in a rubble cup and got knocked over and no-one rights it, yeah.
my other novice thought on unexpected early clam mortality is that CUC don't necessarily discriminate between a very weak sessile invert vs. a deceased one. For sure a healthy clam won't even be on a bristle worm's radar, but if your convalescent clam is getting tired at 3am.... And if you are lucky enough to get a super healthy clam from a responsible LFS who's had them under sufficient light for awhile, awesome, zero worries. But I'm never that trusting that the clam wasn't stuck in shipping on the way to the dealer, or how long it's been in low light before getting to me, etc, so I baby them for the first couple nights. Like literally checking on them every couple hours until morning to make sure no CUC are getting too curious. Probably unnecessary, this is more for my peace of mind feeling like I did everything but I think it's best case to assume the clam is malnourished. First time I did this I realized i had a previously unknown pair of whelks that kept beelining to my recently added clam. I'm sure they couldn't bother a healthy clam, but they were interested in the clams in a way they never showed to healthy snails.
minus9
5000 Club Member
The ones that were wide open and reacted to light changes. If they didn’t open at all, I would simply not consider them at all. It takes clams more energy to shut than to stay open, this is by design. If the clan can’t open, that’s a really bad sign and I would avoid any clam that doesn’t open or at least try to open in short order.
I also looked at mantle color as well.
OP
OP
That's a great story to keep in mind. I know there are a few bristles in my tank, but I don't know how many bc I'm never at the office at night. I've considered setting bristleworm traps just to see what comes up, bit there has been what I consider such good stability lately that I don't want to disrupt anything. I've never noticed whelks before, but that's not to say it's impossible.
OP
OP
Thanks, that's good advice to keep in mind. Maybe I should skip on the idea of ordering sight unseen and wait for something like our local Coral Farmer's Market--they usually have Clammania there, although I wasn't sold on the owner's pitch last time. I could give it another chance, though!
Did they send you some photos? Could you please share the photos?
minus9
5000 Club Member
Yeah, I would only order a clam from someone I trusted or had a really good track record of providing healthy clams. Also, John has given some weird advice about clams that seems contradictory sometimes, but you can easily spot the healthy clams when he’s at shows. I have two croceas that I bought from him last year and they’re doing great. Sometimes I ignore the people selling the animals and simply pay attention to the animals themselves, they’ll show you everything you need to know.
OP
OP
Not yet, but I will check tomorrow. They are sometimes closed on Mondays though, do we'll see.
