ORA Clam grades: Purple First?

[Aeiyr]

Posting because I've been seeing some things about how ORA grades their maxima clams.

"ORA grades include Ultra, Ultra Gold, Purple First, Green First and Gold mantle colors."

All I have ever seen are Ultra and First Grade Blues and Golds. Has anyone ever SEEN or owned a Purple? I can't even find pictures of them except the one stock image ORA uses that shows a bunch of clams together. Does anyone else have experience with finding one of these seemingly mythical Puple Clams?

Post pictures if you have one or have seen one!

 

[dansyr]

I've seen purples when I lived near their farm as a kid, so they exist haven't seen any recently enough to have a photo though. Sorry not an informative answer but mostly answering so i'll get pinged when people more in-touch post photos!

 

[Aeiyr]

I've seen purples when I lived near their farm as a kid, so they exist haven't seen any recently enough to have a photo though. Sorry not an informative answer but mostly answering so i'll get pinged when people more in-touch post photos!

Well atleast they exist! Lol. I've put out feelers to the two nearest LFS's near me incase they do an ORA livestock order, told them I'm looking specifically for an ORA Purple Maxima, preferably on the smaller side as my tank is a nano before I upgrade in the next year. I'll definitely post pictures if I ever manage to get one. Maybe they really are rare? I don't see many purples in inverts and corals.

 

[dansyr]

Well atleast they exist! Lol. I've put out feelers to the two nearest LFS's near me incase they do an ORA livestock order, told them I'm looking specifically for an ORA Purple Maxima, preferably on the smaller side as my tank is a nano before I upgrade in the next year. I'll definitely post pictures if I ever manage to get one. Maybe they really are rare? I don't see many purples in inverts and corals.

They're definitely more rare. All the ones I've seen have had other colors mixed in, i believe you can get near-solid blues and teals and such but never heard of solid purple.

BTW unsolicited advice (as a fellow nano-keeper with two clams) make sure you get good alk/cal dosing, baby maximas grow REAL fast. Or at least they should. like growing a new scute in a month or two.

 

[Aeiyr]

They're definitely more rare. All the ones I've seen have had other colors mixed in, i believe you can get near-solid blues and teals and such but never heard of solid purple.

BTW unsolicited advice (as a fellow nano-keeper with two clams) make sure you get good alk/cal dosing, baby maximas grow REAL fast. Or at least they should. like growing a new scute in a month or two.

Yeah I'd love a purple with a gold or blue rim, or black/blue spotting/splotching. I'll drop in a photo of the clam I have now. Two weeks I've had it and it's nice and happy (from what I can tell, he's not much of a talker)

The week I got it I noticed alk dropping pretty fast. Since then I have started dosing Brightwell Nanocode A&B (just an easier dose reefcode for small tanks)

Took three days but I brought my dkh up from a tanked out 6 to a nice 8.5 and will be testing/dosing to set a good dosing schedule to keep it at that solid 8.5

 

[minus9]

I had a purple and gold maxima (I believe it was from ORA) until my yellow tang had a taste for it. I lost it as it never recovered. It also took out another maxima too. Needless to say the yellow tang found another home.

 

[Aeiyr]

I had a purple and gold maxima (I believe it was from ORA) until my yellow tang had a taste for it. I lost it as it never recovered. It also took out another maxima too. Needless to say the yellow tang found another home.

Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that. The longer I'm in this hobby the more I'm okay with never having tangs and trigger and such, as it is unlikely I'll ever go for anything bigger than a 50 gallon lagoon. My logic is with a 50, 10% WC is a 5 gal bucket, and frankly I can't be bothered to do more than that unless its an emergency, lol. Maybe 10 gallons every week but that's probly it. Lugging water sucks.

 

[Opus]

Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that. The longer I'm in this hobby the more I'm okay with never having tangs and trigger and such, as it is unlikely I'll ever go for anything bigger than a 50 gallon lagoon. My logic is with a 50, 10% WC is a 5 gal bucket, and frankly I can't be bothered to do more than that unless its an emergency, lol. Maybe 10 gallons every week but that's probly it. Lugging water sucks.

I'm the same way but I just don't do them at all. I've had my 50gal setup for around a year and I've done 2 water changes in that time.

As for grading, it has changed over the years. Golds used to be the ugly step-child and were priced really cheap compared to blue colored ones. I remember buying gold maxima's for $20, wild caught not ORA. I can't remember what ORA charged when they first started having clams. I honestly never see them locally since ORA requires you to order so much other stuff to get clams added to your order.

 

[Aeiyr]

I'm the same way but I just don't do them at all. I've had my 50gal setup for around a year and I've done 2 water changes in that time.

As for grading, it has changed over the years. Golds used to be the ugly step-child and were priced really cheap compared to blue colored ones. I remember buying gold maxima's for $20, wild caught not ORA. I can't remember what ORA charged when they first started having clams. I honestly never see them locally since ORA requires you to order so much other stuff to get clams added to your order.

2 WCs in a year? Refugium I assume? I unfortunately won't have the luxury until next year. Looking to get IM's 50 gal lagoon with their 22 gallon nuvo sump. I'll dedicate part of the skimmer section to a fuge or something then. I have recently moved my nano to using aquaforests hybrid pro salt. It's been helping to eat up nitrates so I can actually do a 15% WC every 7 days instead of 5 whole gallons (50%) every 4 days, yeesh.

 

[Opus]

2 WCs in a year? Refugium I assume? I unfortunately won't have the luxury until next year. Looking to get IM's 50 gal lagoon with their 22 gallon nuvo sump. I'll dedicate part of the skimmer section to a fuge or something then. I have recently moved my nano to using aquaforests hybrid pro salt. It's been helping to eat up nitrates so I can actually do a 15% WC every 7 days instead of 5 whole gallons (50%) every 4 days, yeesh.

I have a IM50 but it is an AIO. No fuge, just a small skimmer since there are only a couple that will fit in one of the chambers. I actually have been dosing nitrates because mine were close to zero and I wanted them around 10 to 15.

 

[Aeiyr]

I have a IM50 but it is an AIO. No fuge, just a small skimmer since there are only a couple that will fit in one of the chambers. I actually have been dosing nitrates because mine were close to zero and I wanted them around 10 to 15.

dang, what's your stocking look like? What's consuming all your nitrates that you need to dose for them?

 

[Opus]

dang, what's your stocking look like? What's consuming all your nitrates that you need to dose for them?

I have 3 blennies, 2 tangs, 2 clowns and a pseudochromis. Corals are mainly zoas, mushrooms, torches, and a few leather corals. I assume the corals consume most of the nitrates and I don't put enough back in from feeding.

 

[Aeiyr]

I have 3 blennies, 2 tangs, 2 clowns and a pseudochromis. Corals are mainly zoas, mushrooms, torches, and a few leather corals. I assume the corals consume most of the nitrates and I don't put enough back in from feeding.

How much do you feed if I may ask? My tank is just an IM 14 peninsula, with 2 clowns. And the only large inverts are my two clams, a fire shrimp and a tiger conch. Other than that it's just snails and hermits.

Corals include 6 small rhodactus shrooms, 4 ricordea, 2 hammers, and octospawn, and 1 torch. Oh and a cabbage leather that's pretty small.

Food wise I feed between 1/3 to 1/2 of a cube of frozen mysis. I Doak the thawed water away with paper towel and then put a few drops of selcon in to soak before feeding. And sure as ever it just seems my nitrates creep up through the week. The hybrid pro salt is helping, and doing a 15%WC is enough to cut the nitrates in half very easily. But I can't carbon dose for nitrates because of the tank volume, it would crash.

Other than that I dose 15ml of live phyto (ocean magik) which shouldn't raise trates at all as it's well, alive. It's been a head scratcher. Probably just to con to a nano tank.

 

[Opus]

How much do you feed if I may ask? My tank is just an IM 14 peninsula, with 2 clowns. And the only large inverts are my two clams, a fire shrimp and a tiger conch. Other than that it's just snails and hermits.

Corals include 6 small rhodactus shrooms, 4 ricordea, 2 hammers, and octospawn, and 1 torch. Oh and a cabbage leather that's pretty small.

Food wise I feed between 1/3 to 1/2 of a cube of frozen mysis. I Doak the thawed water away with paper towel and then put a few drops of selcon in to soak before feeding. And sure as ever it just seems my nitrates creep up through the week. The hybrid pro salt is helping, and doing a 15%WC is enough to cut the nitrates in half very easily. But I can't carbon dose for nitrates because of the tank volume, it would crash.

Other than that I dose 15ml of live phyto (ocean magik) which shouldn't raise trates at all as it's well, alive. It's been a head scratcher. Probably just to con to a nano tank.

I split 3 cubes between my son's IM40 and my tank each day. I rotate spirulina and regular brine shrimp cubes, mysis shrimp cubes and fish egg cubes. I do selcon sometimes. I don't rinse the food. Just thaw it in tank water and then feed using a plastic dropper. I actually try and overfeed so the other inverts will get some food. My filtration is the filter pads that came with the aquarium which I think I've cleaned once this year. I also use poly filter pads instead of any kind of carbon.

 

[Aeiyr]

Just posting a wrap-up here because I got one! I won't name names but someone with ORA reached out to me and worked with a coral shop I order from regularly to get a beautiful little gold and purple Maxima. Pictures attached both with whites and blues.

 

[afrokobe]

Clams

Buy saltwater clams from Pacific East Aquaculture, we’re proud to offer our selection of saltwater reef aquarium clams to add diversity and beauty to your tank. Our tridacna clams also offer water filtration benefits, vital to keep a healthy tank. Shop for different tridacna saltwater clams for...

pacificeastaquaculture.com

PEA has a lot of purples

 

[Ron Popeil]

I'm the same way but I just don't do them at all. I've had my 50gal setup for around a year and I've done 2 water changes in that time.

As for grading, it has changed over the years. Golds used to be the ugly step-child and were priced really cheap compared to blue colored ones. I remember buying gold maxima's for $20, wild caught not ORA. I can't remember what ORA charged when they first started having clams. I honestly never see them locally since ORA requires you to order so much other stuff to get clams added to your order.

your local store can order JUST ORA clams if they want. or just corals. there are no restrictions on what your store can buy from ORA.

 

[Opus]

your local store can order JUST ORA clams if they want. or just corals. there are no restrictions on what your store can buy from ORA.

That may be true now, but they screwed too many LFS around me so they don't order from them. Of the dozen+ reef stores in my area, I don't think any of them carries ORA. The only ORA I see is at Petco.