Behold, the clam keeper!

[JoJosReef]

Ignore the tiniest little giant clam ever. Tonight I acclimated a hippopus and wanted to place it in a shroom-style box with adequate flow, screen to keep curious fish away and minimal light obstruction.

Prototype #3:
A plastic cup with holes drilled into it, sand on the bottom and a small piece of rubble

Add netting, super-glued to one side. Weighting the other side with a superglued frag plug. This lets me open and close the netting to put the clam in or out.

Clam in the cup, submerged the whole time.

Cup in the tank, net draped over.

Smaller netting would probably be better, but hoping this at least makes any curious fish pause at the prospect of getting stuck inside the cup. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Haven't had enough time to observe if the holes provide enough flow through the cup. The ideal would be an acrylic box or cylinder with plenty of vertical slits for flow that has a netted top that could snap or screw on.

 

[Doctorgori]

Ya know the only thing I really hate more than a urchin ride is when a turbo snail decides it will “nestle” right next to a clam every night
that’s a handy design

 

[OrionN]

Ignore the tiniest little giant clam ever. Tonight I acclimated a hippopus and wanted to place it in a shroom-style box with adequate flow, screen to keep curious fish away and minimal light obstruction.

Prototype #3:
A plastic cup with holes drilled into it, sand on the bottom and a small piece of rubble

Add netting, super-glued to one side. Weighting the other side with a superglued frag plug. This lets me open and close the netting to put the clam in or out.

Clam in the cup, submerged the whole time.

Cup in the tank, net draped over.

Smaller netting would probably be better, but hoping this at least makes any curious fish pause at the prospect of getting stuck inside the cup. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Haven't had enough time to observe if the holes provide enough flow through the cup. The ideal would be an acrylic box or cylinder with plenty of vertical slits for flow that has a netted top that could snap or screw on.

Hope it won’t act as a gill net for your fishes.

 

[kevgib67]

Excellent, following.

 

[Tomb85]

Any update?

 

[JoJosReef]

Any update?

Unfortunately, my 3 clams of 2024 have all 3 met untimely deaths. Each within 2 weeks. A large derasa, a tiny hippopus and a tiny crocea. Light and water quality have been ruled out. Evidence suggests that I have a clam predator in the tank. I will be spending a few nights in the office with a red flashlight and some half shell clam to see what comes out after lights out.

The cup with netting seemed to be OK for keeping the blenny out. In fact, the blenny never seemed to show interest in the clam until shortly before the clam was dead. In the future I might get a one of the acrylic mushroom cages from OctoAquatics.

 

[Tub Life]

Geez that sucks about the clams. Were they all new additions? No other clams in the tank?

...and, is that a fire coral?!

 

[JoJosReef]

Geez that sucks about the clams. Were they all new additions? No other clams in the tank?

...and, is that a fire coral?!

Red one behind the hippo? That's an orange (more red though) monti setosa. It grows well where it's at on the sand bed. Like a big red tree.

Unfortunately, yes, they were all new additions. I got the derasa first and thought it died because it came in bad condition--its shell looked like it had been laying on its side for a long time. So then got the hippopus, but when I went to pick it up, it was closed and way smaller than I thought. Then picked up a crocea at a show that was definitely very healthy although small. The hippo and the crocea definitely got PLENTY of light. I think there might be something chowing down on the clams, since all three of them lasted less than 2 weeks.

 

[minus9]

Check out the latest ReefBum live stream with Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung, they talk about some clam issues, which I think some of us have been experiencing.