Signs of clam stress..Any good advise?

[AzSnake]

So I just got a Corcea and it is my first clam. He extends daily and looks great. His color is brilliant and he seems to be happs where he is. The question I have is on their mouth...
Mine is WIDE open all day. Is this normal? I have some books comming but I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver them. I just want to take every precaution and make sure my new resident is happy.

[Peabody]

That *could* be a very bad sign depending on how wide open his incurrent syphon is. Search for "gaping" on here. It is a sign of stress. You clam could just be a little stressed, or perhaps it could be serious problem.....

What is your tank size and lighting? How long has it been set up? Also, you should check all of your water parameters. (temp, PH, Am, Nitrite, nitrate, calc, alk...) Please let us know what they are.

[Mad Scientist]

Yup, that's good advice, I guess lots of types of stress can make a clam gape, IME, it's always been caused low calc or alk, check these asap. Clams will be stressed by low CA/ALK even before some stony corals will look bad.

Good luck

[AzSnake]

The Calc is 450, I will need to check the Alk and other parameters when I get home. Typically they are all within what would be considered "very good" parameters here on this site. The tank is a 80 gal, with 2 175 MH bulbs and 2 VHO actinic. I got the clam from a tank with very low lighting. The clam does open it's mantle very nicely if that makes a difference. I can take a snap shot of him tonight and post it when I get home. I placed the clam on the bottom of the tank and have plans on raising him up as time goes on but since he was in such a low lighting environment before I want to try to acclimate him to the tank (All inverts, including all Coral, scallops and other clams are doing great in the tank.)

[AzSnake]

So I just looked up gaping.
The Pics I see don't really show what I see.
Mine intake is perfectly round and is about the since of a dime or a nickel (in between the 2) The calm is about 3". The siphon tube is also very tight and does not look dilated. I will still post a pic to see what your opinions are.
Also the calm is still reactive to light/shadows and the occasional hermit or snail that touches it's shell and or mantle.

[AzSnake]

So would this constitute gaping?

[K. Lee]

Picture is a little blurry, but no, that is not gaping. ;)
It could be considered on the edge of gaping. A clam's incurrent sipon is usually open enough that if it has tentacles there, they touch the other side, but this is variable, and changes as the clam feeds, or what have you.

Notice how the mantle looks like the clam is stretching upwards to the light? This may indicate it is not getting enough light.

[AzSnake]

Thanks for the reply. I had just dosed with Phyto before I took that Pic so the clam could have been opened wide. (If that’s how it works). The Clam is at the bottom of the tank right now. I was planning on moving him up toward the light but wanted to allow him to acclimate to MH's when he was in a NO tank in the LFS I got him at. (Naughty LFS). When I get home I will move him 1/2 way up the tank and see how he responds. I will also take a better pic latter. I really needed to put my camera on a tripod. I took this on with a pretty slow shutter speed and freehand.

[AzSnake]

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