Keeping clams

[adamsfour]

Looking for Advice on clams. Watched a video on them last night. I never had much luck but apparently derasa are a little more forgiving and have a wider range of light tolerance. My water presently is very stable with Alkalinity around 10.5, calcium 450 and mag 1200. Trident does a good job of keeping stable. What’s everyone experience with clams. Looking for a good hardy specimen

 

[Doctorgori]

Fortunately there are a few frequent visitors here that know their clams. I can only offer what I’ve done:
-I use cradles or inverted shells to house them, I do this in case I have to move them and so I don’t have to cut any basal threads et …Be advised invariably a snail will frequent the space between clam and shell for a bed
- you will notice a flux in your 2 pt dosing with clams
- watch for “nippers” … angels come to mind
- not much luck with hippodus (I’m not looking up the spelling lol)

 

[adamsfour]

That’s awesome advice.

 

[Doctorgori]

I’ve seen actual ceramic “ bases” made for clams, Makes moving and placing less stressful
Also note I’ve found their lighting tolerance to be wider than advertised, esp derasa … IME constant disturbance by humans, fish or water is a bigger stressor….but again you will get better advise than mine here hopefully

 

[exnisstech]

What type lighting do you have and have you tested par? Lighting is crucial to keeping clams successfully. Cultured clams have a better success rate than wild harvested, at least IME.

 

[adamsfour]

I am using 3-Hydra 26 on a 36 x 24 inch tank. Not sure what the par is.

 

[exnisstech]

I am using 3-Hydra 26 on a 36 x 24 inch tank. Not sure what the par is.

That should be fine. I would try to get some kind of idea of par. I only say that because early in I failed keeping clams even though my lights looked bright the clams were starving.

 

[adamsfour]

Yea I think I can come up with something

 

[OrionN]

Clams are easy creatures to keep. There are only a few things you need to worry about. Once you make sure of these things are gone from your tank, they are trouble free and long live. They should be beginner level animals. I keep them thriving when I was a beginner and information we had back then, in the 1990 were not anywhere near the amount we have at our finger tips now. Read from well know author rather than any 15 mins video on the net that you can get a dime a dozen (or free)

You need to get a healthy clam to begin with. The clam should be growing, there should be white growth rings on the edge of the shell, the wider the better. When they are growing, the soft tissue inside the shell should be full when it closed. Picking up the clam looking into it, you should not see empty space. Empty space means or equivalent to emaciated clam.

QT your new clams if you have healthy clams in your DT already. QT tank need to be fully light. This is easy, just get a daylight flood light from Home Depo and you are set for short term light in DT. These are the most common disease of clams. Take care of the disease below and your chance of success is almost assure if you provide correct condition and stability. Back on this later.

You need to make sure your tank and your new clams are free of parasitic snails. I wrote an article on how I deal with this pest here This really worth a 15 mins read

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

You need to make sure your tank are free from Pinched Mantel Disease (PMD). I wrote an article on this here. This also worth a 15 min read.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Pinched Mantle Disease in Giant Clams

Introduction It was almost 20 years ago when I first introduced the Fresh Water Dip (FWD) protocol for the treatment of Pinched Mantle Disease (PMD). Over the years, many reefers altered the protocol somewhat but, on the whole, it still is the...

www.reef2reef.com

Of course you need stable water and high Calcium and Alkalinity

I always QT my clams before exposed my healthy clams to them. Just make sure they are open well and are trouble free for several weeks. I have several QT tank, and a QT 40 gal reef system that I have running all the time. Dealing with disease in a 40 gal reef is indefinitely better than dealing in a 320 gal reef for sure. Just take my word for it if you never keep a large reef. The main things I QT for is the above two disease, but I am sure there are a huge number of disease of clams out there that I was for fortunate never meet. I know that both of these disease above wipe out my clam collections in the past, only one time each. I learn quickly. I started reefing at a time before the internet and good information were hard to come by. The knowledge instill above are hard won, long and very expensive for me. I hope you pay attention to them. It will save you a lot of grief.

Regarding clams in your tank. They needs stability, don't move them around every 5 mins. If you have enough light, then they should be right on the sand. I keep all my clams on the sand and grew 1 inch Maxima and Crocea to 7-8 inchers no problem. They don't need to attach to anything to live well. You can put them on the rock-work or on coral. Just make sure that it is stable, facing up and leave it there. It will attached and do fine. Within the wide range of light, it is the zooxanthellae that need to adapt to light, not the clam. Within reason, the zoos with adapt to the light level and populate the clam mantle to feed the clam.

Clams that require very high light, upper SPS level are the Maxima, Crocea and Noae. These clams need full tropical sunlight. They often exposed to air in low tide, and nothing to cover the Sun other than the clouds.
Lower level light level, high LPS and Lower SPS level lights, you have the rest of the clams. Of these, I would start with Squamosa. They are beautiful and can be very colorful. Does not require the amount of light needed for the high light one. They grow fast if healthy.

Good luck with your clam adventure.

Lastly, here are few of my clams

 

[adamsfour]

Awesome words of an experience keeper of clams.

 

[minus9]

@OrionN said it best. Follow his steps for success and you'll be fine. In the meantime, buy this book. I agree with squamosa and being a good first clam, they adapt to all kinds of lighting, are very colorful and have unique shells, especially when they're smaller. Also, check out James' website for more info.