Clams

[LiveRock]

Hi

Many times captivated by the beauty of clams and I am tempted to get a small/tiny one for my small tank. But I want to sure of its needs and requirements. So, here are the questions:

(1) What is the watt/liter, etc. light requirements? Must I need MH? Or sufficient PLL will do? I've asked a few LFS and many told me PLL will do.

(2) Food requirements: What do they eat?

(3) Will they survive a constant 30 degrees C?

(4) Which species are the least demanding?

Thanks a bunch!

[Morgan]

Light requirement: HIGH

Food requirement: Photosynthesis, juvenile: phytoplankton

Survival at 30C constant: probably not.

Speices:

2 species are found in the LFS.

Croceas- come in mainly blues, greens or brownish. HIGH light requirement.

Squamosa - Shades of brown. Light requirement not as high as croceas.

[mv3i]

hi morgan ,

just a q.... i have 4 clams in the tank and 3 i know is corceas .... but the last one .... with a distinct pattern .... blue base one ... is that corceas too .... pic can be found in the reef/ new reef tank under mv3i thread ....

thanks for the info

[Morgan]

Hi mv3i

The clams you have are all croceas.

[TTBoy]

How do u tell the difference between Maxima and Crocea?

[Morgan]

Read this article http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/19...ell/default.asp

[Creetin]

the maxima is the biggest one rite? and the most expensive? can we find ani of them in SG?

[Morgan]

Maximas is not the biggest, gigas is. No idea about price locally as I have not seen them for sale.

[Creetin]

it says in the link that they are hardy but i guess wif high temps, its the end of the clam!

[Stenopus Hispidus]

Yup, you can find them in SG and yes they command premium price. <_<

Here's a pic of mine in blue and green. Easily recognisable by the hyalin organ peppering the edge of the mantle and are somewhat bigger than croceas. The blue one on the far right is a crocea. Sorry, image a bit blurred..Surface turbulence...

[TTBoy]

Wah! its beautiful! where did u get it and whats that large green thing?

[mv3i]

wow .... i just wanna know where you get them .... i like them all .... juz how much are we talking about for them .... do they behave like the corceas .... same conditions and strong lights ... anything peculiar about them ...

thanks

[LiveRock]

What is the max temp a small crocea will take?

[Stenopus Hispidus]

TTBoy,

Thks for the compliment. That large green thing is a green lobophyllia sp.

mv3i

Maximas are quite rare esp. the Blue and Green variants. The Brown ones tend to be relatively more common. If you are lucky, one or two maximas may come together with a group of croceas at any LFS that sells clams. You gotta know how to identify them and zoom in on it. Some LFS knows which is which and you end up paying something like $10-$15 more than the croceas I dunno why? Maybe the size does matter. Admittedly, maximas do look a bit bigger than croceas so if you look at it that way, then the price might be justifiable. My Blue & Green Maxima ($50 each) and my Blue Crocea ($30) and all been around for more than 2 years.

Liverock

Some books say that croceas are more demanding than maximas but basically I don't notice a difference. I treat croceas and maximas in the same way. Strong lighting and cool temperature (24-26 degree Celcius) with additions of kalkwasser. I do not think 30 degrees is sustainable. It will bleach out or shrivel up in time, if not immediate. My friend's didn't last more than a year at 29 degrees (that's subjective though). I don't know what's the max temp to keep crocea and I wouldn't want to hazard a try on mine but I personally feel that if I cannot give them a temperature range of 24-26, I'll refrain from buying them altogether.

[Morgan]

Hi Stenopus Hispidus

Are you sure that maxima sometime get mixed together with crocea?

Even the brown ones.

So far the brown ones I have seen are squamosa.

[Stenopus Hispidus]

Hi Morgan,

Yup, that is positive. I still remember the Green Maxima I got was the only one in 15 croceas there and the Blue one was 2 in 10 blue Croceas and the Brown Maxima was by luck. It happened to be the one and only there and I just closed my eyes and bought it because its occurence is quite rare.

Heres a pic of my brown one.

[Tanzy]

Nice clams y'all, but what's with the T. maxima and T. squamosa? I personally think that T. crocea is the most beautiful of all the Tridacnids.

[Stenopus Hispidus]

Hahaha Call it the sixth sense...but right after I posted, I could literally feel this question coming. It was only a question of time.

1. I prefer maxima cos when its happy, its mantle can spread out wider than a crocea thereby spreading its colours further.

2. They are slightly bigger but yet not too big (squamosa).

3. They are not so common.

...But ultimately I guess it just boils down to personal preference.

[LiveRock]

Hi

Read that Clams actually utilise nitrates! Won't it be a good addition to any reef tank as nitrate reducer?

Also, i'm looking the best bet in achieving a thriving clam for my small tank.

Any recommendations?

(1) Tridacna crocea - vote (0)

(2) Tridacna maxima - vote (0)

(3) Tridacna squamosa - vote (0)

Conditions:

Temperature: 28-30

Lights: 1 x 18W PL, 1 x 18W Actinic PL, 1 x 11W 50/50 PL

Surface area: 1 foot x 1 foot x 2 feet deep.

Filter: Ehiem 2026 Pro-II Canister

Skimmer: Prizm

Cooling: AC Fans blowing over water, DC fans for all lights and ballasts.

Supplements: Kalk, Seachem Reef Plus, CoraLife.

Hope to tap on the wealth of knowledge and experiences from all you guys

Cheers!

[Morgan]

Hi Morgan,

Yup, that is positive. I still remember the Green Maxima I got was the only one in 15 croceas there and the Blue one was 2 in 10 blue Croceas and the Brown Maxima was by luck. It happened to be the one and only there and I just closed my eyes and bought it because its occurence is quite rare.

Heres a pic of my brown one.

Hi Stenopus Hispidus

You are really lucky to have spotted it.

Nice clams you have there.

Should take a look at your tank

[robe]

Hi Liverock,

You need to have MH lights if you want to keep colorful clams. FL unless you have a lot is not sufficient to keep them alive more than a few months.

[Tanzy]

Clams can only act as nitrate reducers when used in large amount and given strong lighting such that they will grow and use nutrient. I agree with robe that Fluorescent lights are not suitable for clams, even VHO is a poor substitute for MH. When I was in Maldives, hundreds of T. crocea clams can be seen borrowed into the reef surface in 3 inch deep water! Those clams are living at 2000 E/m2 irradiance level which even 400W MH bulbs struggle to put out over the tank.

[Morgan]

Hi liverock

"Conditions:

Lights: 1 x 18W PL, 1 x 18W Actinic PL, 1 x 11W 50/50 PL

Surface area: 1 foot x 1 foot x 2 feet deep."

Your lighting is not good for maintaining clams. The intensity is not strong enough. Clams may not last a year under this condition.

If you already have 1, you will find that the mantle of the clam will extend to very large after a few months, this is becos it trying to photosynthisized as much as possible. And also the colour will gradually fade.

After that it is downhill all the way.

[Phang]

From what I know,

Clams that have brownish Mantle has a lower lighting requirement....

Those that have coloured mantles required much more light or else their mantle would change to brown...

BTW, does a brown mantle clam changes its colour after gradually exposing it to higher light source??

[Hon]

hey ppl ... can anyone identify or confirm is that a tri. maxima from this pic at my website???

I keep suspecting its a maxima from the first day I bought it. How to identify a maxima from crocea?