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Unread 03/09/2007, 09:53 AM   #53
critterkeeper
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Tampa, FL
Posts: 234
Also copied from the other post:

Kalkbreath wrote:

"I have studied clams for a few years now; under the microscope, one can clearly witness the zooxanthella inside a clam's blood stream... I have never found plankton?[neither zoo plankton or phytoplankton] EVEN after days of target feeding... Ingesting food is carried out when the clams gills allow only certain substances to pass through their membranes. "

Zoox aren't found in the bloodstream, they are kept in a specialized system of tubes called the zooxanthellal tubular system. And the gills don't let things "pass through their membranes". Particulates are sorted and passed to the labial palps, then injested by the mouth, which leads to the stomach. Also, numerous studies have found phyto in their stomachs, as well as some other things, including zooplankton.

Really, this entire subject is covered in great detail in my book, but I can throw this in too. I was successfully keeping clams in 1993 - before there was any such thing as phyto in a bottle. DT's hadn't even been "invented" yet - it came out in 1996. I'd never even heard of trying to feed them anything - and they didn't die. I started a maintenance business in 1996 and had numerous clams in my own and customers tanks - and never used phyto in any of them, until I started using live sand beds in a few tanks in maybe 1999. Never noticed any change in growth/survival of clams. That's how I knew DT's/Shimek's article was wrong before I ever looked at any of the references. Yes, it is complete BS.


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