MoparMike97
Active Member
I figured this would be a good example as to why you never give up on an animal until you are absolutely certain it's dead, sometimes you get lucky.
The subject of this thread and my blue-green squamosa were both ordered from PEA during their Black Friday sale, this one was an "Our Pick" jumbo squamosa, so obviously I didn't see any images of the animal prior to shipment. This is something I normally avoid with Tridacna, mostly just due to the massive amount of variety in coloration, but I also because I believe many vendors will ship clams that are already in poor condition and are all but doomed to perish in shipping. Obviously, PEA is well known for providing extremely healthy clams, so this wasn't a concern for me and a little mystery every now and then can be fun, so I figured I'd give it a shot!
The package arrived on December 6th at about 5pm, pretty late in the day but luckily temps weren't particularly cold. I immediately opened the box, heatpack was still warm and the water was cool but not cold, didn't get an exact temperature reading. While the blue-green was tightly shut and looked normal, I was immediately concerned about the big guy. The water in the bag was cloudy and I could see shell was wide open with no mantle visible. I floated the bags for about 25 minutes to equalize temperature, then unbagged both and started drip acclimation, while unbagging, the large clam was completely retracted, gaping, and releasing large amounts of slime. It showed absolutely no reaction to changes in light or even physical touch. At this point I thought it was a goner, but figured I'd finish acclimation and just throw it in the tank for a few hours. Worst case scenario, the CUC gets a treat before I remove it.
Here's how it looked after acclimation on the evening of the 6th, retracted, gaping and absolutely no reaction to stimuli. You can actually see the light passing through the inhalant siphon and byssal opening onto the sandbed
I ended up going out to dinner shortly after getting it in the tank. I didn't return until about 10pm and went to bed. Fully expected to wake up to find it dead.
So imagine my surprise when I saw this the morning of the 7th.
And a few hours later, certainly not healthy looking, but alive and improving.
December 8th
December 9th
December 10th
December 13th
And today (19th), looking fantastic! I absolutely love the stippled pattern of the mantle, it has an almost metallic sheen to the white dots that's hard to capture on camera.
In all honesty, I've never had a clam recover from being that far gone before. I've always assumed when they are no longer reactive to physical touch, they're gone, but this shows that may not always be the case. It was definitely an eye opener for for me!
I don't blame PEA in any way for the condition of the clam on arrival, in fact, if the clam weren't healthy prior to shipment, IMO it would 100% be dead right now. The packaging was excellent, heatpack was warm and the water was a cool but not freezing by any stretch. The box had a fair number of small dents and dings, so all I can really think of is that the box was jostled around enough to severely stress out the clam, since I really don't think the water was cold enough to stress it out to that extent
Whatever the cause, I'm happy with the ultimate outcome, and it goes to show, these guys are certainly capable of coming back from the brink!
The subject of this thread and my blue-green squamosa were both ordered from PEA during their Black Friday sale, this one was an "Our Pick" jumbo squamosa, so obviously I didn't see any images of the animal prior to shipment. This is something I normally avoid with Tridacna, mostly just due to the massive amount of variety in coloration, but I also because I believe many vendors will ship clams that are already in poor condition and are all but doomed to perish in shipping. Obviously, PEA is well known for providing extremely healthy clams, so this wasn't a concern for me and a little mystery every now and then can be fun, so I figured I'd give it a shot!
The package arrived on December 6th at about 5pm, pretty late in the day but luckily temps weren't particularly cold. I immediately opened the box, heatpack was still warm and the water was cool but not cold, didn't get an exact temperature reading. While the blue-green was tightly shut and looked normal, I was immediately concerned about the big guy. The water in the bag was cloudy and I could see shell was wide open with no mantle visible. I floated the bags for about 25 minutes to equalize temperature, then unbagged both and started drip acclimation, while unbagging, the large clam was completely retracted, gaping, and releasing large amounts of slime. It showed absolutely no reaction to changes in light or even physical touch. At this point I thought it was a goner, but figured I'd finish acclimation and just throw it in the tank for a few hours. Worst case scenario, the CUC gets a treat before I remove it.
Here's how it looked after acclimation on the evening of the 6th, retracted, gaping and absolutely no reaction to stimuli. You can actually see the light passing through the inhalant siphon and byssal opening onto the sandbed
I ended up going out to dinner shortly after getting it in the tank. I didn't return until about 10pm and went to bed. Fully expected to wake up to find it dead.
So imagine my surprise when I saw this the morning of the 7th.
And a few hours later, certainly not healthy looking, but alive and improving.
December 8th
December 9th
December 10th
December 13th
And today (19th), looking fantastic! I absolutely love the stippled pattern of the mantle, it has an almost metallic sheen to the white dots that's hard to capture on camera.
In all honesty, I've never had a clam recover from being that far gone before. I've always assumed when they are no longer reactive to physical touch, they're gone, but this shows that may not always be the case. It was definitely an eye opener for for me!
I don't blame PEA in any way for the condition of the clam on arrival, in fact, if the clam weren't healthy prior to shipment, IMO it would 100% be dead right now. The packaging was excellent, heatpack was warm and the water was a cool but not freezing by any stretch. The box had a fair number of small dents and dings, so all I can really think of is that the box was jostled around enough to severely stress out the clam, since I really don't think the water was cold enough to stress it out to that extent
Whatever the cause, I'm happy with the ultimate outcome, and it goes to show, these guys are certainly capable of coming back from the brink!
