I think I made a mistake...need some level headed advice.

[Paul B]

Sorry, no good news here. That scallop will not live long in your tank, or my tank, or anyone's tank.
It is just the way it is. But good luck.

 

[Daddy-o]

I culture my own currently, but without f2, it's not multiplying fast enough to completely stop buying out and I'm skeptic about the miracle grow people suggest

One of the reasons I stopped was I was worried that the f2 that I was adding would turn our reef into a Phyto smootie 'cause of my inattention to detail

 

[AcroNem]

Where did this info come from? Is there a study where a gut content analysis was performed?

Yes, there have been one or two I can't recall where I saved the paper. I was searching for specific food particle sizes and selective feeding in Lima scabra.

 

[AcroNem]

Sorry, no good news here. That scallop will not live long in your tank, or my tank, or anyone's tank.
It is just the way it is. But good luck.

With consistent/constant supply of appropriately sized foods it will. The issue being most people aren't willing to run a system that can handle those conditions, so it starves. Mine do just fine in my filter feeding system that's fed every hour to maintain a suitable cell density.

 

[Grey Guy]

IMO don't strain the food juice. Rotate foods , include veg or Phyto blends. Consider Rotifers as part of the tank diet or a blend that contains them. Stir your sand, and regularly blow the dust of the rocks.

My scallop is two years old and I have had several of my bivalves for much longer.

Keep in mind many of these just don't make it and it because of the animals original health and not always a lack of food. I originally purchased three scallops.

PLEASE TELL US MORE. What tank parameters do you keep flame scallops with. I heard they were deeper water, therefore non-photosynthetic, and like colder water. I killed 2 right away, many years ago and never tried again. How can you not love Flame Scallops? They are awesome.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

PLEASE TELL US MORE. What tank parameters do you keep flame scallops with. I heard they were deeper water, therefore non-photosynthetic, and like colder water. I killed 2 right away, many years ago and never tried again. How can you not love Flame Scallops? They are awesome.

Lol. Normal mixed reef. Large refugium. Undersized skimmer , rotate foods and dumb luck.

 

[danielsalt]

With consistent/constant supply of appropriately sized foods it will. The issue being most people aren't willing to run a system that can handle those conditions, so it starves. Mine do just fine in my filter feeding system that's fed every hour to maintain a suitable cell density.

Thats great if it works at your place, sounds like a really sweet setup you got.

It also unfortunatly sounds like one in a million setup, in the rest of peoples home tanks a flame scallop wont live past 6 months, as that is roughly how long it takes for it to starv to death with only minimal feeding (minimal=1-2 times/day).
They are beautiful creatures for sure, its a shame they exist in the trade.

 

[AcroNem]

Thats great if it works at your place, sounds like a really sweet setup you got.

It also unfortunatly sounds like one in a million setup, in the rest of peoples home tanks a flame scallop wont live past 6 months, as that is roughly how long it takes for it to starv to death with only minimal feeding (minimal=1-2 times/day).
They are beautiful creatures for sure, its a shame they exist in the trade.

Yes the system I run is more complex, I went with a modified reactor using 1/4" tubing hooked up to a dosing pump and magnetic stirrer. But the same can be done with a container and doser or even a drip system. It doesn't have to be highly complex or expensive at all. Definitely doesn't require a one in a million set up, anyone can make it work.

Too many people just give up. Too many people are saying "yep, it's dead for sure" and leaving it at that. Full stop. I'm also hearing "it's going to starve and that's just the way it is" when that isn't true at all if it's done correctly. It doesn't have to be that way. Who remembers when there were species that couldn't be kept or raised because "that's just the way it is" that are common today? Yes it's a lot of effort, but it's a different kind of effort. When I started keeping reefs a lot of things were "too hard" or "couldn't be fed correctly". If they're willing to put in that real effort I think we should stop writing it off because people have heard it's impossible to keep from people who tried to feed them brine shrimp (or other inadequate foods) once per day.

Just had to put my thoughts out there, you may ignore them as you please.

 

[danielsalt]

I went with a modified reactor with 1/4" tubing hooked up to a dosing pump. But the same can be done with a container and doser or even a drip system. It doesn't have to be highly complex or expensive at all. Definitely doesn't require a one in a million set up, anyone can make it work.

Yea i understand it can be done and quite easily, just saying it is an extremly rare installation most reefers wont have and thus most reefers wont be able to keep flames alive. One in a million referred to how common it de facto is, i admire people like you who do it :)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea i understand it can be done and quite easily, just saying it is an extremly rare installation most reefers wont have and thus most reefers wont be able to keep flames alive. One in a million referred to how common it de facto is, i admire people like you who do it :)

Mine is a blindingly simple set up and method.

 

[Grey Guy]

SO WHAT'S THE SECRET TO KEEPING FLAME SCALLOPS HEALTHY?

 

[PSLReefer]

SO WHAT'S THE SECRET TO KEEPING FLAME SCALLOPS HEALTHY?

Keeping them in the ocean!!

 

[Paul B]

With consistent/constant supply of appropriately sized foods it will. The issue being most people aren't willing to run a system that can handle those conditions, so it starves. Mine do just fine in my filter feeding system that's fed every hour to maintain a suitable cell density.

AcroNem, it is great that you can keep a scallop alive and I am jealous of that. But the OP will not be able to do that in his 16 week old tank. You and I know that is not going to happen but I wish him luck.
A red scallop in the sea probably lives ten years or more (I am guessing but shellfish can live decades)
In the sea they eat constantly 24/7 and "most" tanks can't supply that which is also the reason almost no private home tanks can keep sea fans for more than a few months and that is another animal with similar feeding requirements as a scallop.
But good luck. :D

 

[Grey Guy]

Keeping them in the ocean!!

LOL

 

[keddre]

It's worth a shot now that you have it. Mine was the first addition in my tank (seriously... It beat the clean up crew) and now it's for months old. Not past the starvation date, but close and he is still responsive to feedings

 

[AcroNem]

SO WHAT'S THE SECRET TO KEEPING FLAME SCALLOPS HEALTHY?

Consistent feeding of foods that are the right size and "taste" that I mentioned earlier. Yes it would be much harder in a new system as the bioload of that amount of food is hard on any system. It's not that they are sensitive or "hard" to keep (most bivalves actually do very well in nutrient rich water) it's supplying food that is tough. I'll say the same for a lot of the sea fans and Gorgonians that are available.

Again, it's the "just give up it's going to die" mentality that bothers me.

 

[nickyeager]

Yes it would be much harder in a new system as the bioload of that amount of food is hard on any system. It's not that they are sensitive or "hard" to keep (most bivalves actually do very well in nutrient rich water) it's supplying food that is tough..

That is actually the part I am concerned about now. I have been dosing Seachem Reef PhytoPlankton which is what the owner of the LFS gave me to feed him. My concern that this is dead algae and overdosing will overwhelm my system. The instructions say to dose twice weekly but I know that Scallop needs daily feedings. I checked my water parameters just before I started so if i see a significant increase in nutrients after a week of daily dosing I know I am headed for trouble. Also I see some recommend feeding Seachem Zooplankton in this thread. Well isn't that dead stuff too? And should I dose them together or rotate etc? I am worried about increases in phosphates due to this behavior and other excess nutrients, ammonia, nitrates etc. Right now my system is really balanced and dumping all this stuff in the tank daily concerns me. I am considering adding some nassarius snails to the system as well to keep my sand stirred up to assist in feeding.

I feel like I need to get away from all this dead bottled stuff in general but I do not have a refugium or culture setup just yet (i have a second unused wet/dry and I am considering adding that to the system since I have dual overflow box and make that my fuge just working out the water levels so I don't flood in case of power outage).

I am trying to figure out based on of all your suggestions what regimen is best. The reed mariculture shellfish diet 1800 looks promising but what is it? It appears to be another type of bottled dead micro algae. Isn't that Zooplankton/Pod food too? Rotifers look interesting (Zooplankton I believe) but I need to culture these or I will be buying them for the rest of my life for a 7 dollar scallop. Copepods are a great idea too maybe even one day I could support a Mandarin with the right system but again I would need to culture this stuff or I would be buying them for the rest of my life. So can I culture Rotifers and Copepods together in one fuge? And even so I will need Phytoplankton to support these little animals so do I need to culture or buy phyto for the rest of my life?

I love this Flame Scallop and I am not lazy, but I can't find a guide that specifically says purchase this and this and set this up and feed on this schedule in this manner. I wish that existed. I have read this thread 3 times now start to finish as well as a research piece on Flame Scallops and I see lots of good ideas but I am unable to put these ideas into a single cohesive plan all the while "Scallopini" is hanging out in that tank wondering where the food is.

Also anyone know of a pipette for spot feeding that is very long say 12 inches long? I want to try spot feeding but do not like the idea of sticking my hands in that water daily. Here is a pic of my little guy, he took hold under a rock bridge and has been there a few days which is great because i can see him easily and spot feed, I hope he stays there! Also a side note since I started dosing this phytoplankton my Foxface has never looked better! He is bright yellow all the time instead of having a whitish hazy yellow color in the mornings not sure if there is a connection there but usually he is only bright yellow in the afternoons when it's around feeding time.

 

[keddre]

I started off using that, and the zoo plankton version, to feed my inverts and I didn't listen to the bottle either, I would do a cap full of each twice a day for my 55. I saw a small spike at first but overnight it was taken care off, so not much to worry about. With all the planktons you mentioned, my only concern is their size as flame scallops only eat small (I think 40 microns(?)) . If I feed live pods (which I'm actually starting Firday) I would setup a separate tank with nothing but an airline -no stone- and some algae you can remove in it, then turkey baste in daily.

Although this is themed around feather stars, there is some great info here about filter feeders -> https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/feather-star-diary.319296/

I can't take a picture of my scallop at the moment, but here is a picture of my culture setups (I'm still working on them) that I will put on an auto-doser (in the mail) to feed my system bi-hourly. right now it's only phyto and macro algae, but I'm adding tigger pods soon, then brine after

 

[AcroNem]

That is actually the part I am concerned about now. I have been dosing Seachem Reef PhytoPlankton which is what the owner of the LFS gave me to feed him. My concern that this is dead algae and overdosing will overwhelm my system. The instructions say to dose twice weekly but I know that Scallop needs daily feedings. I checked my water parameters just before I started so if i see a significant increase in nutrients after a week of daily dosing I know I am headed for trouble. Also I see some recommend feeding Seachem Zooplankton in this thread. Well isn't that dead stuff too? And should I dose them together or rotate etc? I am worried about increases in phosphates due to this behavior and other excess nutrients, ammonia, nitrates etc. Right now my system is really balanced and dumping all this stuff in the tank daily concerns me. I am considering adding some nassarius snails to the system as well to keep my sand stirred up to assist in feeding.

I feel like I need to get away from all this dead bottled stuff in general but I do not have a refugium or culture setup just yet (i have a second unused wet/dry and I am considering adding that to the system since I have dual overflow box and make that my fuge just working out the water levels so I don't flood in case of power outage).

I am trying to figure out based on of all your suggestions what regimen is best. The reed mariculture shellfish diet 1800 looks promising but what is it? It appears to be another type of bottled dead micro algae. Isn't that Zooplankton/Pod food too? Rotifers look interesting (Zooplankton I believe) but I need to culture these or I will be buying them for the rest of my life for a 7 dollar scallop. Copepods are a great idea too maybe even one day I could support a Mandarin with the right system but again I would need to culture this stuff or I would be buying them for the rest of my life. So can I culture Rotifers and Copepods together in one fuge? And even so I will need Phytoplankton to support these little animals so do I need to culture or buy phyto for the rest of my life?

I love this Flame Scallop and I am not lazy, but I can't find a guide that specifically says purchase this and this and set this up and feed on this schedule in this manner. I wish that existed. I have read this thread 3 times now start to finish as well as a research piece on Flame Scallops and I see lots of good ideas but I am unable to put these ideas into a single cohesive plan all the while "Scallopini" is hanging out in that tank wondering where the food is.

Also anyone know of a pipette for spot feeding that is very long say 12 inches long? I want to try spot feeding but do not like the idea of sticking my hands in that water daily. Here is a pic of my little guy, he took hold under a rock bridge and has been there a few days which is great because i can see him easily and spot feed, I hope he stays there! Also a side note since I started dosing this phytoplankton my Foxface has never looked better! He is bright yellow all the time instead of having a whitish hazy yellow color in the mornings not sure if there is a connection there but usually he is only bright yellow in the afternoons when it's around feeding time.

In the feather star thread I did sort of outline how a good feeding schedule should be. Yes, the phytoplankton is dead, but so is everything else you feed your fish unless you buy live Pacific krill, grad shrimp or mysid shrimp to feed your fish. If you compare what you feed your fish and the dry weight of shellfish diet (I think it's 8%) it's not very different. The problem is that a flame scallop doesn't need fed daily, or even a couple times per day. It needs fed ALL the time, and it needs its food in a specific cell density in the water. So looking at the cell density per ml of shellfish diet or other Diatom/phytoplankton mixtures you can figure out how much you need to add to keep the cell density in your system to around a few thousand cells per cubic centimeter. In mine it tops out around 35,000 but it can be a few thousand. As for zooplankton, yes flame scallops will feed (quite voraciously) on copepod nauplii. But if you're feeding the correct amount of algae into your system and don't have many planktivores then you're going to have a lot of microfauna in your system explode in population. That will work quite well In helping sustain your scallop.

Yes, feeding filter feeders can be quite the challenge. But it's worth it.

 

[keddre]

In the feather star thread I did sort of outline how a good feeding schedule should be. Yes, the phytoplankton is dead, but so is everything else you feed your fish unless you buy live Pacific krill, grad shrimp or mysid shrimp to feed your fish. If you compare what you feed your fish and the dry weight of shellfish diet (I think it's 8%) it's not very different. The problem is that a flame scallop doesn't need fed daily, or even a couple times per day. It needs fed ALL the time, and it needs its food in a specific cell density in the water. So looking at the cell density per ml of shellfish diet or other Diatom/phytoplankton mixtures you can figure out how much you need to add to keep the cell density in your system to around a few thousand cells per cubic centimeter. In mine it tops out around 35,000 but it can be a few thousand. As for zooplankton, yes flame scallops will feed (quite voraciously) on copepod nauplii. But if you're feeding the correct amount of algae into your system and don't have many planktivores then you're going to have a lot of microfauna in your system explode in population. That will work quite well In helping sustain your scallop.

Yes, feeding filter feeders can be quite the challenge. But it's worth it.

+1 in a filter feeder tank there should be food in the column 24/7. In mine you can visibly see all the food floating