just got my first maxima clam. couple questions.

[Lucky Lefty]

Clam is about 2.5 inches. Placed on sand bed yesterday. Running 2 - 250 watt metal halides with 20000k bulbs.

He is open, looks really good, may be getting a little too much flow as his mantle flaps in the breeze

::quick story break, as I was typing this I turned my head to see a nassarius snail getting up close and personal with the clam... reached in to grab him but he just turned around, slid away, and buried himself... PHEWWW, close call but I guess a good sign that the clam is not dying otherwise the snail would have started chowing down::

Sorry about that....

so the spot I have him in is almost directly under a piece of live rock, but still get a decent amount of light, however not as bright as other spots out in the open.

I shifted the piece of rock to give the clam a more direct beam of light, but after just a couple minutes, I would notice the clam retract his mantle and then it would kind of jolt, like it just tried to move by kicking it's foot. He did this about 4 times about 20 seconds apart, I moved the live rock back to its original position and he hasn't done it since.

I will post a pic with my ipad to try and give an idea.

Any indicators I should look for, and do you think this is enough light?

Thanks

[Lucky Lefty]

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[Lucky Lefty]

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[Lucky Lefty]

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[Lucky Lefty]

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[Lucky Lefty]

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[Lucky Lefty]

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[Lucky Lefty]

Any chance this can be moved to the clam sub forum, I just noticed it.

[m0nkie]

IMO, if it is a maxima clam, they like to be attached to rocks. With intense lighting.. mine likes to stay around 300 PAR light. If you can, measure your tank with a PAR reader to be sure.

if it doesn't enough light, it will slowly perish.. when you notice something's off, it will be too late

beautiful clam for sure! looks like you could use some fish.

[Lucky Lefty]

Thanks for the response. When the lfs opens wednesday, I'm going to go buy a decent sized piece of shelf rock for him to attach to.
My lfs also has a par meter they rent out so I'll have to grab it to see how my lights are.
as of late I've been so undecided about fish. I really only want 3 more fish, a flame hawk, and a pair of mandarins. I've just been waiting for my tank to establish more copepod and get more LR, so I haven't pursued the mandarins yet and I've haven't come across a baby flame hawk in a while either.
I've really taken a liking to coral so I think im gonna go mostly coral and just a handful of fish.

[m0nkie]

here's a good article on clams.. I am no expert at this, but I've read that a healthy fish-load is important to raising clams, which is why I mentioned, you might need more fish

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/7/inverts

The fish load matters due to the fact that fishes give off nitrogen-based ammonia as a waste product, which can be used by tridacnids as a source of nitrogen since they can absorb it directly from the tank water. Fishes also produce fecal material, which can provide tridacnids with a source of phosphorus and other nutrients, as well. Some is dissolved in the water and much becomes detritus, which can be filtered from the water. Additionally, any uneaten fish foods will also break down and become yet another source of dissolved nutrients and detrital particles. Thus, if there are enough fishes in an aquarium, providing them with food will also cover the needs of any tridacnids present.


This is why this article's title has (Usually) in it, as there may be cases when an aquarium has a very low fish load (or none) and/or a very high tridacnid load. If there are few/no fishes in an aquarium, then there's little/no fish food going into the tank, which means there is little/no ammonia being produced, and little/no phosphorus, etc. going in either. This is why some hobbyists have tried and failed to successfully maintain large numbers of tridacnids in aquaria housing few or no fishes, and is also the cause of some of the confusion about feeding.

Here's an example of things going wrong: Many years ago my friend Barry Neigut (owner of Clams Direct) tried to test the effectiveness of a number of planktonic and particulate foods with respect to tridacnid survival and growth. He set up several small tanks, put clams in them, and used a different food product in each tank. He also had a control tank that contained the same number of clams, but didn't feed them anything. All were given the same lighting.

Well, most of the clams that were fed survived (albeit some foods fared much better than others), but all of those in the unfed tank died. So, one of Barry's conclusions was that apparently you had to feed them something or they'd starve. Unfortunately, at that time, he didn't know about tridacnids' ability to absorb nutrients, and his results would have been very different had he put a fish or two in the unfed tank and provided them with even a small amount of fish food. Hopefully at this point you can understand what went wrong, and how important fishes are.

Unfortunately, there is no sound guideline for how many fishes are required in order to keep a given tridacnid alive, though. There are too many variables to consider, such as tank volume, clam size, fish size, frequency and amount of feeding, competition from corals, etc. However, you probably shouldn't worry, because the fish load and nutrient availability aren't an issue in most aquariums anyway. In well-stocked reef aquariums the input of nutrients per gallon is usually much, much higher than it is in reef environments, and the vast majority of aquariums have a nutrient surplus rather than a deficit.

[Lucky Lefty]

Great article, thanks a lot.
Hopefully between feeding my nassarius snails, acans, and my insanely messy puffer, and his very large, dog like poo, there is enough nutrients for now floating in the water.
Can't wait to see what the par meter says.
is it possible to blast the clam with too much light? I'm thinking of positioning him about half way up the tank, hopefully he doesn't cliff dive into the sand.

[MikeyUU]

If you would like to keep the clam on the bottom there are other options as well. I have my maxima in a clam hammock(basically a rock with a channel down the middle) on my sand bed. It has attached itself and has been doing great.

[moliken]

mantle should NOT flap. give it the most light u can. don't keep moving it

[Lucky Lefty]

Originally Posted by moliken

mantle should NOT flap. give it the most light u can. don't keep moving it

Ok thanks. Mantle isn't constantly flapping, sometimes the flow hits it just right and it flaps a little bit.

Hopefully I find a nice rock today to out under him today.

I haven't moved him since I put him in there originally which was Saturday (today being tuesday). I didn't want to stress him out too much. The last thing I adjusted was the rock that is blocking some of the light above him to give him direct light, but when I did that he started retracting and jolting a few times a minute. Moved rock back and he stopped. I'm hoping when I place him halfway up towards the light he doesn't jump off the rock.

Stopping by the lfs today to try and rent their par meter. Hopefully it's available.

[Lucky Lefty]

Just an update.
clam seems to be doing great.
rented a par meter from my lfs, wrote a thread on it in the lighting section.
also got the clam a nice piece of flat rock, and set him up about halfway up the tank last night.
Took par readings this morning, he's getting about 285 par with all 3 halides running. Today he seemed to be fully extended, and I could see his body in the center.

[moliken]

needs more than 285 to thrive [poetry is free]

[Lucky Lefty]

What should I be going for.. or is that info not free?

[moliken]

seems to me that the meter can't be right with three mh bulbs unless the clam is shaded or the bulbs are old. the answer to the question is to get as much par as possible, but i'd say for a maxi to do really well over the years, your par should be above 400.
one dollar is the cost for that please

[Lucky Lefty]

Bulbs are brand new, less than a month old. Perhaps they need time to break in or burn in. Could be old ballasts. All in all, I want to upgrade my lights sooner than later.

They clam is about 14" deep, dead center of the left mh and middle mh which are sitting about 4" above the water.

Checks in the mail.

[moliken]

if all you say is correct, the meter must be bad. it can't be only 285. i'd try to see if it reads differently at lfs.
online payments only. paypal. no checks.

[Lucky Lefty]

Hmmm.. I wonder. The guy at the lfs didn't really give much instruction aside from "press this power button and stick this probe in the tank".
I didn't mess with any settings. Perhaps something was wrong with the meter. I was kinda rushed with my testings, lfs charges $30 a day to rent the par meter, which is ridiculous, but the only one I found so far with a par meter, so I had a few hours to do it and just took his word that it was setup correctly or that it was as simple as he stated.

[scarpenter]

how is your clam Lucky...I have 2x 250 MH running
phoenix 14k bulbs. I am also interested in a clam, but on the sand. However, Deresa clams are not as desirable in the color category.

[scarpenter]

oh yeah, 24 inch tall tank...

[Lucky Lefty]

So far so good.. seems to be extending well, responding well. Week 1 has been a success.

He has attached his foot to the rock I placed him on and seems to be happy. I take that as a good sign.