Is my clam healthy?
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ZoWhat
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I overshoot the 1350ppm bc clams quickly deplete Mag when they are thriving.....so I shoot for an overshot of 1500. Much rather be at 1500 than 1100
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In all my years keeping clams I've never had them deplete magnesium although I keep it around 1400. Calcium and alkalinity were depleted and even when keeping lower magnesium I noticed the clams showed no signs of stress. I also did weekly water changes.
CNDReef
Formally Toomanyfish
Have you tried using a more white light setting on your LED’s?
I say this because I recently changed my t5 bulbs . Was running 5 blue+ and 1 geisman tropic 6500k
I changed the 65k for a coral + and my clam closed up a bit and started moving. Today I changed them back out because I bought a actinic led bar and instantly the clam opened wide again.
I say this because I recently changed my t5 bulbs . Was running 5 blue+ and 1 geisman tropic 6500k
I changed the 65k for a coral + and my clam closed up a bit and started moving. Today I changed them back out because I bought a actinic led bar and instantly the clam opened wide again.
From the appearance and size I think your clam is a wild collected Maxima from French Polynesia.
About 10 years ago I went there and set up the collection station and helped start a clam farm. These clams are found naturally in the remote islands distant from Tahiti and occur in the hundreds of millions. They are mostly embedded in rock and must be carefully chiseled out. When we first set up the station the plan was to collect and sell wild clams in a effort to fund the farming. My partner there hand collected each clam. Its slow and difficult work when done correctly, I've done it myself and can attest to the difficulty. The clams are found less than 6 feet deep under intense tropical sunlight, with strong water flow, in pristine water on occasional rock outcroppings. In some areas we collected clams where the water temps were in the 60s although mostly in the low 70s.
Over the next few years we imported as many as 1000 or more at a time, you can check our videos on YouTube and also learn more in my blog: https://pacificeastaquaculture.com/blogs/coral-farming-in-the-solomon-islands
We varied the islands we collected because the coloration was different from each. After a time my partner became more intetested in collecting fish and less so in collecting clams so he turned over that aspect to local fisherman. Unfortunately they are not as careful to take the time to chisel them from the rocks and usually damage the foot. Also, they started to ship them from the remote Islands to Tahiti dry instead of in water. You see, the clams are harvested there as food and this type of rough collection is common. Once these changes began we started seeing increaseed mortality and central mantle bleaching as seen in your clam.
Later it was discovered that the Perkinsus parasite has commonly been found in these clams in the wild and presumably the stress of dry shipping within the islands and rougher collection stresses the clam to the point that it can no longer deal with the parasite. I stopped dealing with the wild collected clams several years ago and now only deal with smaller cultured where we find no mortality or stress signs such as mantle retraction or bleaching.
Freshwater dips could be of some benefit, but in my experience an already stressed clam can't tolerate the additional stress of the dip.
Sorry for being long winded, but thats the story on these clams.
The rare Chimera or so-called Two Faced clam, see about 1 in every couple million in the wild. Actually culturing some now.
About 10 years ago I went there and set up the collection station and helped start a clam farm. These clams are found naturally in the remote islands distant from Tahiti and occur in the hundreds of millions. They are mostly embedded in rock and must be carefully chiseled out. When we first set up the station the plan was to collect and sell wild clams in a effort to fund the farming. My partner there hand collected each clam. Its slow and difficult work when done correctly, I've done it myself and can attest to the difficulty. The clams are found less than 6 feet deep under intense tropical sunlight, with strong water flow, in pristine water on occasional rock outcroppings. In some areas we collected clams where the water temps were in the 60s although mostly in the low 70s.
Over the next few years we imported as many as 1000 or more at a time, you can check our videos on YouTube and also learn more in my blog: https://pacificeastaquaculture.com/blogs/coral-farming-in-the-solomon-islands
We varied the islands we collected because the coloration was different from each. After a time my partner became more intetested in collecting fish and less so in collecting clams so he turned over that aspect to local fisherman. Unfortunately they are not as careful to take the time to chisel them from the rocks and usually damage the foot. Also, they started to ship them from the remote Islands to Tahiti dry instead of in water. You see, the clams are harvested there as food and this type of rough collection is common. Once these changes began we started seeing increaseed mortality and central mantle bleaching as seen in your clam.
Later it was discovered that the Perkinsus parasite has commonly been found in these clams in the wild and presumably the stress of dry shipping within the islands and rougher collection stresses the clam to the point that it can no longer deal with the parasite. I stopped dealing with the wild collected clams several years ago and now only deal with smaller cultured where we find no mortality or stress signs such as mantle retraction or bleaching.
Freshwater dips could be of some benefit, but in my experience an already stressed clam can't tolerate the additional stress of the dip.
Sorry for being long winded, but thats the story on these clams.
The rare Chimera or so-called Two Faced clam, see about 1 in every couple million in the wild. Actually culturing some now.
DesertReefT4r
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Its looking decent to me. It is opening some and closing so that is good. If a clam will not close even if touched or moved its a goner. Keep your cal alk and mag were it is, stability is key as im sure you know. Increasing mag to 1500 will do nothing for anything in the tank. Pinched mantel is more of smaller areas of the mantel that dont open fully and it will start to spread. Fresh water dips have worked well for me to rid clams of this issue. I used RODI buffered to the same alk and ph as the tan water. Even forgot one in the dip for several hours and it was totally fine, though it would have killed it for sure.
Good looking aquariums!
Good looking aquariums!
Vin's Reef
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They need about 350-450 par and try to avoid a location where the fish will continually swim over it. I dose phytoplankton daily and he is firmly attached to his rock. (Pic is before I perched him up).
So I do believe I'm going to move forward with the freshwater dip today, as you'll notice from the photo is bottom part of the mantle has been receding so hopefully the freshwater takes care of any issues
