A couple people told me this clam is dying, not sure what to believe?

[lucyretz]

I bought this 6-8” Sqamosa clam today for $39. It was the biggest one and on sale, I couldn’t say no.

I’ve always wanted a clam, i had been reading up on the type of systems they need to survive. I concluded that my system could handle a clam, but that’s as far as I got. Clam health and everything else is still another language to me.

These pictures I’m adding below were taken within 25 minutes of the clam being put in my tank.

What do you guys think? Did I buy a dying clam.. is there still hope? I thought because he was inflated he was healthy, learned the hard way I suppose

 

[Idaho-reefer]

If it responds to light and the mantle isn’t pulled away from the shell. I say leave it be and don’t worry about it. Looks fine. The mouth open like that isn’t a huge concern. If you mess with it too much, you can stress and kill it.

My 2 cents

 

[azreeftank]

Clam looks fine and for that price it’s a deal. The mantel looks perfect and the gaping mouth, well I have several clams and my oldest is 7 years and the mouth has been gaping yet growing and healthy. Let it be and it will be fine. Good find

 

[lucyretz]

If it responds to light and the mantle isn’t pulled away from the shell. I say leave it be and don’t worry about it. Looks fine. The mouth open like that isn’t a huge concern. If you mess with it too much, you can stress and kill it.

My 2 cents

Yes it does respond to light, scared the living **** out of me when I was grabbing something on the back of the tank and my arm happened to shade it and it shrunk up at a hundred miles an hour LOL[emoji23] I won’t touch it again. I burped it before lights out because I didn’t know that was a thing, and a lot of air came out. Hopefully that helps him out. Will try feeding some phyto tomorrow! Thank you!!

 

[lucyretz]

Clam looks fine and for that price it’s a deal. The mantel looks perfect and the gaping mouth, well I have several clams and my oldest is 7 years and the mouth has been gaping yet growing and healthy. Let it be and it will be fine. Good find

That’s awesome to hear thank you so much!!

 

[Tanggirl12]

I’ll give you 39....

 

[mystersyster]

Clam looks great. they like lots of light. His mouth is more open than others but is by no means gaping. Clams don't need to be fed either. They'll filter what they need from the water, but they get 99.99% of their food from photosynthesis.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Looks really good.
Just check your lighting.
That guy is going to color up a lot.

 

[needbiggertanks]

I agree with above. Looks ok to me, i wouldnt consider that "gaping" at all. Also, I agree with no need to feed that guy, as long as you have proper lighting this should really take off and color up nicely. Great price in my opinion!! Also, there is some nice new shell growth there which is a good indicator of health. Well done. Lets see how it rides out. Post more pics!!!!

 

[DSC reef]

That clam is healthy. Remember, an open incurrent siphon is not gaping. I suggest you read up on some of James fatheree articles. It will help you a lot. Your clam does not look unhealthy at all.

 

[lucyretz]

Hey everyone! Here’s an update. I’ve been throwing in some phytoplankton and I’ve geared my Radions up slowly to help him get the light he needs. So far so good. Seems to be happy.. as a clam. [emoji6]

 

[ocboat]

It's looking great and I can see some new shell growth, nice job.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Super clam! Enjoy. I know I would.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

The clam looks nice and healthy! Squamosa's are one of my favorite clams.

 

[Greybeard]

Nice

I love clams.

As hinted at above, 'gaping', a clam with with it's incoming siphon stretched open can be considered a sign of stress. Moving from one tank to another... more than sufficient cause to be gaping a bit, and he looks much better in the later photo. I'm not sure how much I believe in the whole 'gaping' thing anyway. I've seen perfectly healthy clams that spend their whole, long life looking as if they were gaping, by that definition.

Clams, like many other animals that are subject to intense predation, are really good at hiding the fact that they are weakened. Rabbits are the same way... you'll seldom know one is sick until it's dying. Not that I'm suggesting there is anything wrong with your clam, I'm not... I'm just saying that for animals at the bottom of the food chain, sending an easily visible signal to the world around them that this animal is unhealthy is a good way to end up as lunch. I've had clams that looked fine, and were nothing but an empty shell the next day. It's just not so easy to see a sick clam. I'd say failure to react to shadowing would be a much more valid observation than the state of their siphon.

There was a real good bit at MACNA last year discussing commercial farming of clams. BRS has it on their MACNA video list. Can't recall the speaker, but it was very interesting. Many times the productivity of commercial fish farming, without the pollution and water quality issues fish farms typically create. Good stuff. Doing a huge amount of good for the species, repopulating over harvested areas... The biggest worry these days seems to be that some well meaning idiot will manage to get tridacnid clams listed as threatened.

Oh... nothing wrong with feeding a bit of phyto to your reef, but most of what I've read from the 'clam experts' claim it is unnecessary. Good quality water, reef alkalinity, pH, and calcium, and good lighting. They don't really need anything else

 

[jda]

I looks like it is generating new shell. This is the best positive sign that you can ask for.