Are clams always this difficult?

[nkyreef]

I purchased this clam Saturday. Acclimated 1 hour and in to the DT. All day Sunday looked real nice. Mantle open and good reaction to light/shadow. On the sand bed middle of tank about 160 par. This morning it was on its side and I righted it. One of my emeralds was hanging from it when i picked it up. I did not see much of its foot when I looked. All day today it's been partially closed. I moved it to lower par and flow a few hours ago and no change. Should I move it back? Up? Leave it be?

1.026, 78F, 9.8 dKh, 445 ppm cal, 1320 ppm mag, 4 NO3, 0.03 PO4

 

[bsagea]

Emerald crabs though considered to be reef safe will sometimes go after some inverts. Blue leg hermits are the same way. Halloween crabs are the only ones we have in our systems...tankmaster won't put any others in our tanks because of that reason. Some just go rogue. Put the crab in the sump if that's the only one you have in there and see if your clam starts to open again. Hopefully he didn't damage or remove the foot. Do you have any angels in the tank?
On another note, clams like low to medium flow. If it's a maxima, it will require a great deal of light. Constantly moving a clam stresses them as well and stress will kill them too. For the time being, I would leave it alone and see if it opens after removing the crab.

 

[nkyreef]

I have 2 emeralds and some scarlets. No Angels but as far as pickers go I have a Foxface. There's not a lot of high light low flow places in the tank. Right now it's in about 100 par. I'll work on capturing the emeralds. Thanks

 

[bsagea]

Clams need alot of light to thrive. I have mine on top of the rocks (18" deep tank) running a Hamilton 250w metal halide and (4) t5's - 2 of the t5's are the Arcadia LED actinics. The light sits about 6" above the tank. My halide runs about 6 - 7 hrs per day. It can take a clam months to die from lack of proper lighting. Hopefully he will recover and I would then move him up on the rocks.

 

[nkyreef]

Clams need alot of light to thrive. I have mine on top of the rocks (18" deep tank) running a Hamilton 250w metal halide and (4) t5's - 2 of the t5's are the Arcadia LED actinics. The light sits about 6" above the tank. My halide runs about 6 - 7 hrs per day. It can take a clam months to die from lack of proper lighting. Hopefully he will recover and I would then move him up on the rocks.

I was going to move it up slowly with the final placement being about 190 par. Do you think I can move the clam up that quickly? Right now I have a large frag cup with clear netting across the top if the problem is crab related. My T5-Kessil hybrid is strong. With only running my Kessils at 40% max I can still get 200+ par 12" from the surface.

 

[Phycodurus]

Emerald crabs though considered to be reef safe will sometimes go after some inverts. Blue leg hermits are the same way. Halloween crabs are the only ones we have in our systems...tankmaster won't put any others in our tanks because of that reason.

... so halloween hermits are unlikely to take out snails? i thought all hermits species are a potential risk to inverts (for snails mostly).

 

[dwest]

I was going to move it up slowly with the final placement being about 190 par. Do you think I can move the clam up that quickly? Right now I have a large frag cup with clear netting across the top if the problem is crab related. My T5-Kessil hybrid is strong. With only running my Kessils at 40% max I can still get 200+ par 12" from the surface.

Has he attached to the plug? I hope I’m wrong but I believe it wasn’t healthy when it arrived and the crab was merely scavenging. Did you buy it online or at a LFS? I wouldn’t worry about light yet. He should attach and have an extended mantle before you move him.

 

[Silver14SS]

dwest beat me to it, sounds like the crab may be taking advantage of the situation, but may not be the cause. I got a crocrea clam from @PacificEastAquaculture and it opened up within minutes of being in the tank. I put in it a clam cradle and it shifted around a little the first couple days, but it's been anchored solid since then.

It's in a lot of light and flow, the mantle moves around in the current.

 

[alton]

I started my Gigas out at a par of 250 using BML Leds

 

[nkyreef]

Has he attached to the plug? I hope I’m wrong but I believe it wasn’t healthy when it arrived and the crab was merely scavenging. Did you buy it online or at a LFS? I wouldn’t worry about light yet. He should attach and have an extended mantle before you move him.

Initially he was attached to a rock. Mantle full out up until Sunday night. Monday morning was on his side. Once I righted him and shook the crab off he never attached again. I bought from a LFS of which there were 3 to pick from. I did make a stop there today and the remaining 1 still looked good. I moved him up as a last option but I feel there's no hope. I doubt that I'll ever give another clam a chance. It sucks losing an animal like this.

 

[dwest]

Initially he was attached to a rock. Mantle full out up until Sunday night. Monday morning was on his side. Once I righted him and shook the crab off he never attached again. I bought from a LFS of which there were 3 to pick from. I did make a stop there today and the remaining 1 still looked good. I moved him up as a last option but I feel there's no hope. I doubt that I'll ever give another clam a chance. It sucks losing an animal like this.

Sorry. I don’t know what your LFS is but I have gotten a couple healthy derasas from World of Pets. I have much better luck with derasa clams than the others long term. Good luck.

 

[bsagea]

... so halloween hermits are unlikely to take out snails? i thought all hermits species are a potential risk to inverts (for snails mostly).

I have never witnessed my Halloween crabs attacking any snails....my melanarus on the other hand is another story! bsa

 

[bsagea]

Initially he was attached to a rock. Mantle full out up until Sunday night. Monday morning was on his side. Once I righted him and shook the crab off he never attached again. I bought from a LFS of which there were 3 to pick from. I did make a stop there today and the remaining 1 still looked good. I moved him up as a last option but I feel there's no hope. I doubt that I'll ever give another clam a chance. It sucks losing an animal like this.

Unfortunately he doesn't look like he will survive. Once a clam sinks in that much and starts gaping they seldom make a comeback I'm sorry to say. bsa

 

[nkyreef]

Sorry. I don’t know what your LFS is but I have gotten a couple healthy derasas from World of Pets. I have much better luck with derasa clams than the others long term. Good luck.

Just noticed you're in NKY as well. Hey neighbor. I got him from Cincinnati Coral and Aquarium. It's a newer store but they have nice stuff and everything looks really presentable and trustworthy. World of Pets has had two larger maxima clams around 4" within the past month but I couldn't get the go ahead to drop $200 on either of them. This maxima was about 2" and I've read about the difficulties but went for it anyway because it was a great deal.

 

[nkyreef]

I have never witnessed my Halloween crabs attacking any snails....my melanarus on the other hand is another story! bsa

I've seen my scarlets go for my larger trochus snails for their shells but the not Halloween or Emeralds up until now.

 

[Joel B.]

Any nassarius snails that might've actually been Whelks? That's probably the most common non-fish predatorial killer of clams. Fish killers are an easy cause to spot, you'll literally see bites taken out of the mantle.

Otherwise, with only 3 days in tank before death it either was on the way out before you bought it or the acclimation was extremely rough.

 

[nkyreef]

Any nassarius snails that might've actually been Whelks? That's probably the most common non-fish predatorial killer of clams. Fish killers are an easy cause to spot, you'll literally see bites taken out of the mantle.

Otherwise, with only 3 days in tank before death it either was on the way out before you bought it or the acclimation was extremely rough.

No visible damage. A major concern was the foot of which I didn't see much. I wasn't sure if it can retract. I did acclimate for a little over an hour. I could've tested the LFS water and compared it to mine to see how different our parameters were but it wasn't something that came to mind.

 

[TedsReef]

I just went through something similar. Multiple times a day the clam would either knock itself over or something would knock it over. I had placed it directly on a small rock and it just wasn't latching on. I solved the issue by burying the small rock under a layer of substrate. The clam must prefer the feel of digging into the sand and then securing to the rock. I broke off a piece of rock I had leftover from my setup to use. I would suggest using rock rather than a flat and smooth frag plug. Try it out and let me know!