Crocea help, please.

[juststartingout]

This morning I found our Crocea laying on the sand, again. It seems to fall down about once every other week. I have it placed in a cradle, so to speak on our rock. This time though, I picked up a piece of "something", thinking it was the shrimp that I fed our anenome last night. After a closer look I believe it to be our crocea's abyssal gland. Now what.... this is our first clam. Should I just leave it on the bottom of the substrate? It is under 400 watts of MH lighing and the tank is 32" deep (with about a 3" sand/cc substrate) Will it develope a new gland? Is there any special treatment I will need to provide? Will it die? Thanks for your help.

[Charlie Davidson]

All my crocea are in the sand bed. they too "jumped" off rocks. I say leave it there. clam should do fine, and I belive you have enough lighting. I really do not have any experiance with deep tanks. I am sure others will also answer!

[pecan2phat]

I leave my larger Croceas (& Maximas) in the sandbed. I believe that in nature, they are rock dwellers (borers) but leaving them on the sandbed providing there is sufficient lighting seems to do no harm either. I do however, give them a small piece of rock rubble to attach too so that they do not have their byssal gland opening exposed.
I have less light intensity than you and the distance is similiar. I run dual 250w 10K bulbs 12" from the surface & the clams are about 18" down off the surface.

[Highlander]

Your crocea is moving because it is clearly unhappy in the location you have put it. I do however find that they do better once anchored securely to a rock, so you may want to try an alternate location. Try leaving it on the sand for a while and note the orientation it prefers wrt to light and water flow, then try to repeat that orientation in a location on your rockwork.
Ref the jetisoned abyssal galnd, I have had this happen while trying to locate clams, and the clam regenerated it and is still doing fine months later.