Crocea clam

[andrewt258]

I decided to try my luck with crocea clam. I bought one back in June 2025 at reefapaloza. It was doing fine until the past 2 weeks. Not opening as wide as before. Im running 2 redsea LED90 at 100% blue and 15% white. I fed the tank 2-3 times a week with home grown phyto. The clam was acclimated and slowly moved up to near the top of the rock scape for the most PAR possible. Below are my parameters

Salinity 1.025
Alk 9.15
Ca 480
Mg 1550
NO3 7.5
PO4 0.11
Temp 77-78

What am I doing wrong? Clam was checked for pests but did not see any. None of my fish bother it. Occasionally snails climbed over it. Please see photo and video for reference. In the video I hovered my hand above the clam and it’s reacted very quickly.

 

[Science/G]

He looks pretty good, not great. I don't think he's getting enough light. My Maxima Clam was just hanging in until I upgraded my lights and provided him with 300+ par. He would benefit from the increased par and full spectrum from more whites IMHO.
Check out this thread

Red Sea LED 90s PAR Mapping

Hey Y'all, I rented a par meter from BRS and did my par mapping today. I thought I would share my results. The entire process was very easy. It took about an hour to get a pretty detailed map and then 30 minutes to process my data. Tank: Red Sea Reefer 250 Lights: 2 Red Sea LED 90s This is...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[andrewt258]

He looks pretty good, not great. I don't think he's getting enough light. My Maxima Clam was just hanging in until I upgraded my lights and provided him with 300+ par. Check out this thread

Red Sea LED 90s PAR Mapping

Hey Y'all, I rented a par meter from BRS and did my par mapping today. I thought I would share my results. The entire process was very easy. It took about an hour to get a pretty detailed map and then 30 minutes to process my data. Tank: Red Sea Reefer 250 Lights: 2 Red Sea LED 90s This is...

www.reef2reef.com

The clam is near the top of the rock scape. From my par meter it’s 300. Do you think that reading is wrong or led90 is just not enough for clams?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

There’s a lot of white ‘things’ on the shell, I can’t see what exactly. I also see some hair algae growing on the shell. It might benefit from a cleaning. Make sure nothing is up near the top of the shell to touch the mantle, they dont like anything touching the mantle.

Do you see a white line of new shell growth on top of the shell? It doesn’t look like it in the picture.

 

[andrewt258]

There’s a lot of white ‘things’ on the shell, I can’t see what exactly. I also see some hair algae growing on the shell. It might benefit from a cleaning. Make sure nothing is up near the top of the shell to touch the mantle, they dont like anything touching the mantle.

Do you see a white line of new shell growth on top of the shell? It doesn’t look like it in the picture.

Thosewhite spots are Spirorbis worms maybe i can take it put to clean it. I do see white line of new growth. Maybenot the best picture

 

[exnisstech]

Is this a larger clam?
I can't help out other than show what my two small ones look like. They have really nice mantle extension. Mine are under a meridian getting about 400 par a bit heavy on whites. There's a maxima on the right.

EDIT: these have been in a bit over 3 months.

 

[andrewt258]

Is this a larger clam?
I can't help out other than show what my two small ones look like. They have really nice mantle extension. Mine are under a meridian getting about 400 par a bit heavy on whites. There's a maxima on the right.

EDIT: these have been in a bit over 3 months.

How close to the top are these clams?

 

[exnisstech]

How close to the top are these clams?

Clams are 5-6" from the water surface and the light is 11" above the water.

Here's is a FTS showing their placement.

 

[dansyr]

Clams are 5-6" from the water surface and the light is 11" above the water.

Here's is a FTS showing their placement.

is that also a derasa on the right in the sand? looks like an interesting pattern, do you have a top photo of it?

 

[Science/G]

The clam is near the top of the rock scape. From my par meter it’s 300. Do you think that reading is wrong or led90 is just not enough for clams?

 

[Science/G]

Maybe not with 15% whites ?!!??

 

[PPBlimpy]

I would say crank up the whites over the next week. maybe up to 40%. yes the tank will be very white but the added par will give you an idea if the all blue LED on those lights are just not enough.

I personally like a whiter tank and run my whites at 50% of my blues.

 

[exnisstech]

is that also a derasa on the right in the sand? looks like an interesting pattern, do you have a top photo of it?

It is a derasa. It caught my eye in a lfs one day. I had never seen one with two separate patterns on the mantle before so I couldn't resist.
This is the best shot I have. I need to break out my top down viewer.

 

[exnisstech]

I would say crank up the whites over the next week. maybe up to 40%. yes the tank will be very white but the added par will give you an idea if the all blue LED on those lights are just not enough.

I personally like a whiter tank and run my whites at 50% of my blues.

Especially if clams are kept. Blues do nothing to bring out clams natural colors IME.
The tank I posted was started with clams in mind and I plan on gradually raising the par to see if they respond positively. I'm interested to see how they do if I can get 500+ par on them. I've read they can't really get too much light so we'll see.

Sorry for hijacking OP

 

[PPBlimpy]

Clams will generally take as much as possible. It’s one of the reasons I am collecting equipment to put 400w halides over my tank.

If I get to that point I will have to transfer my porcupine puffer to our other tank because he will make lunch of a clam quick

 

[dansyr]

It is a derasa. It caught my eye in a lfs one day. I had never seen one with two separate patterns on the mantle before so I couldn't resist.
This is the best shot I have. I need to break out my top down viewer.

that's a really cool one! especially with the continuous stripe one next to it.