Spiny oyster

[ImGood]

Picked one up yesterday (spiny oyster), About the size of a softball,its starting to open about 1/2". I'v got a few electric flame scallops, had them for about a year now.they seem to be thriving, never had a spiny oyster, I'm not sure of orientation.is there a right side up?( do they prefer to sit on the hing, like a clam? ). I've not found much info about them. Any first hand information would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

How cool! I've been looking for one the right size for years now.
Yea I'm a crazy bivalve guy too. Clams oysters mussels etc.
I've not seen any really adverse effect from different direction of flow on the animals only high turbulence and speed have seemed to effect them. This includes my squamosa.

 

[Tautog]

Picked one up yesterday (spiny oyster), About the size of a softball,its starting to open about 1/2". I'v got a few electric flame scallops, had them for about a year now.they seem to be thriving, never had a spiny oyster, I'm not sure of orientation.is there a right side up?( do they prefer to sit on the hing, like a clam? ). I've not found much info about them. Any first hand information would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I collect Oysters 3-4 times a year, I eat them, my favorite. In the wild, Oysters will lie flat, or will stand straight up, usually on the fatter edge, where you would stick a knife in to open. Lying flat, there's one shell that's very flat, top, the other side has a dip in the middle, bottom. They will do their best to attach to almost anything but rubber. Most wild Oysters and Mussels are full grown after 2 yrs, and will die shortly thereafter. Oysters and mussels, the ones I see, are invasive. My first tank 30 yrs ago had gotten mussels from a small rock from the beach, my kids put the rock in, within a few months my tank was covered. Worst than Coraline to clean. I collected a fish to eat..........the Tautog.

 

[ImGood]

Here's a couple of pics, it's in a 20g invert Qt tank. Feeding phyto and roids.how large do these get?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I collect Oysters 3-4 times a year, I eat them, my favorite. In the wild, Oysters will lie flat, or will stand straight up, usually on the fatter edge, where you would stick a knife in to open. Lying flat, there's one shell that's very flat, top, the other side has a dip in the middle, bottom. They will do their best to attach to almost anything but rubber. Most wild Oysters and Mussels are full grown after 2 yrs, and will die shortly thereafter. Oysters and mussels, the ones I see, are invasive. My first tank 30 yrs ago had gotten mussels from a small rock from the beach, my kids put the rock in, within a few months my tank was covered. Worst than Coraline to clean. I collected a fish to eat..........the Tautog.

One of my mussels I have had for five years now. It's six inches long 2 wide and millimeters thick. I have four of them now so there's def lots of different ones.

And wow that's crazy they took over your tank.
That'll probably be my luck one of these days.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Oh

Here's a couple of pics, it's in a 20g invert Qt tank. Feeding phyto and roids.

he's awesome!!!!
I'm a little concerned it's not wide open.

And I'd like to brag on your feather duster colony there.
I would have jumped on those too.
I just got a Christmas tree worm coral.

 

[ImGood]

Thanks for the compliments.i was concerned that it wasn't opening wider so I'll try changing the flow in increments. Feel free to brag on the feather dusters ( I got lucky ) I like the porities & bismal worms also, I put one in the DT last Wednesday.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Very very cool. I figure just a bout anybody can have zoas. I prefer a challenge. So far I've gotten luck like that too.

 

[Tautog]

Here's a couple of pics, it's in a 20g invert Qt tank. Feeding phyto and roids.how large do these get?

Wow, that's different. I have Scallops(bay) in my cold water local tank. They open just like your Oyster, very little. Here's a pic

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wow, that's different. I have Scallops(bay) in my cold water local tank. They open just like your Oyster, very little. Here's a pic

Oh that's cool. I'm dyin for a temperate tank.

 

[ImGood]

If they were compatible in a mixed reef, I'd get a pipefish and seahorse( I'm told the wrass and angel fish would eat their eyes). Here's a pic of one of the electric flame scallops in the DT. The oyster has opened a bit wider, I found a small piece of sps mixed in the feathers.and a spong.while trying to separate them, the feather duster colony became about 4-5 colonies .oops.

 

[ImGood]

It's in the DT now been in about 2 hrs,it's opening.the feather duster colonies are in as well, the oyster looks happier than in the Qt.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ohh. That's great!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Oh man! I want one too now!! I need to do some research first though...are they much different in care than clams?

 

[ImGood]

I've never had a clam, I do have a couple of electric flame scallops, & now this spiny oyster, the clams are next on the list.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Oh man! I want one too now!! I need to do some research first though...are they much different in care than clams?

Non photosynthetic is the biggest difference. IMO it does become a bit of a species specific thing. A lot of clean tank folks may have trouble keeping enough particulates in the water column. you'd have to add then subtract pretty aggressively I think. The cleaner water I think is why so many have problems with scallops etc.

@AcroNem can I bug you? You feed a really really interesting blend of foods to your Acros and SPS. Curious, do you have a lot NPS bivalves, tunicates sponges etc?
And of course, does it effect your N/P numbers? And do you carbon dose?

 

[AcroNem]

First off how did I not see this thread when it started? These are some cool systems. Also I hope it's okay with the OP if I answer this fully, if not then just say so and I'll shorten it down.

@saltyfilmfolks you're right that it can vary a lot from species to species, food particle size is a huge factor when getting into feeding non photosynthetic invertebrates. More so if those are small micron sizes, they can be very picky.

I do tend to have a good amount of sponge, tunicate and tube worm growth, never in huge populations though. But that's because although I do feed my corals heavily, I skim aggressively (the cup is full daily or every two days) and do 30%weekly water changes while vaccing the sand of any detritus that's built up because of all that food. Nitrate is barely detectable and phosphate as well. No I don't do any carbon dosing, on any of the systems I have or most that I work with. There are denitrators on the larger systems or with very large occupants. I never got into any of the other reduction methods, sorry.

I have a cube I just finished setting up that will be a NPS system (yes I'll start a thread on it soon) I've kept them in the past but not in a personal dedicated system. We have a system at work (a public aquarium) I help maintain where we keep a fair amount of NPS corals and a group of crinoids, and they get target fed 3-4 times per day and a doser is set up to keep the water murky with food all night. I've found with the bivalves, scallops and other NPS commonly kept in aquaria it's not really the amount (yes it sort of is) of food but the type and kind of food. Which is why I added the couple sizes of diatoms to my feeding mixture and a powdered bacteria, they're exactly the right size for a lot of the filter feeding invertebrates hobbyists try to keep and I've had good success with it. Sorry for such a long winded response, hope it makes sense and helps in some way. Always happy to talk non photosynthetic and feeding.

 

[ImGood]

Very very informative, I've got some sponges as well(I like the colours, shapes & textures). I do spot feed the corals& bivalves, twice a week. With roids & phytoplankton also add pods 3-4 /week & overfeed the fish I'm sure. The past week I've been skimming really wet & feed the fish once/day. Seems to have a positive effect on decreasing alge.

 

[ImGood]

An update on the spiny oyster,and I Just gut another 2 scallops, one electric flame the other im not sure exactly. So far they are looking happy & healthy. Let that trend continue!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thats great! Where did you get the 2 scallops?