Food for clam

[fishtalk1517]

Here's an article write-up by "DT's planton farm"

How can you tell if your clams are getting enough food?

First off, they will be actively growing. Tridacna grow rapidly if well fed, and if they have enough calcium in the water. Second, you will see them actively defecating fecal mucus rope segments. If you feed DT’s Phytoplankton or some other live plankton, you may be able to look into the clams mantle cavity, through a siphon, and see the mucus covering the gills actually lightly colored with the color of the culture. Dead, off the shelf, chemically preserved phytoplankton cultures contain mostly cellular debris and the clams will reject most of this material as it is both the wrong shape and the wrong size.

Even small clams require a lot of algal food, without which their chances of survival are marginal.

Many aquarists have had the experience of keeping Tridacna alive for a few months after which they mysteriously die, after seemingly "doing well." Well... they haven’t done well, they have slowly starved to death using up all their energy reserves and finally dying. All of these deaths - ALL OF THEM - could have been prevented by adequate feeding with good phytoplankton.

So guys, to keep healthy clams alive and to grow them big n healthy, do feed them with phytoplankton and good calcium in ur tank

Now I know Y some of my clams die for no apparent reasons.

[Guinness]

Question: Does anyone target feed their clams?

Never had one, but very tempted.

[piero]

I dose Phyto and rotifeast daily. And Reefroids flooding the whole tank twice a week. Clams seems to be doing well so far. Must look inside ah... tonight I try target feed. Problem is the tueb when go near them. They always close up.

[Guinness]

So do just give a squirt of the food around the clam mantle ??

my concern is just that in my tank near the surface, the water movement/flow is quite high. So the mo I try to squirt any thing it just gets blasted away.

Just wish to check out the faqs before committing to one. Thanks.

[dennster]

I just bought a maxima, would like to know where you guys bought the food for your clam?

[chaniz]

juz a sharing of my clams

[chaniz]

more....

[chaniz]

one more to go......

[kareen]

juz a sharing of my clams

Hi!

Nice clams.... It seems that the clams' mantle are not fully extend.... Hope it is doing better now than in the photos..... BTW, I guess you just got your tank setup not too long ago.... Am I right?

[MapleReef]

I dose Phyto and rotifeast daily. And Reefroids flooding the whole tank twice a week. Clams seems to be doing well so far. Must look inside ah... tonight I try target feed. Problem is the tueb when go near them. They always close up.

Just so you know ... ReefRoids are not meant for feeding Clams ..... usually for Mushrooms, Goni's.

Paul

[tang73]

Hi!

Nice clams.... It seems that the clams' mantle are not fully extend.... Hope it is doing better now than in the photos..... BTW, I guess you just got your tank setup not too long ago.... Am I right?

What make U think that??

[tineng]

you cannot target feed clams, as they close up rather quickly...you normally need to flood your tank or to take them out and put in a smaller container flooded with food....

some interesting topic about feed clams can be found at http://www.clamsdirect.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=951

[flamey]

What make U think that??

by the look of the sand i guess..

[kareen]

by the look of the sand i guess..

Yup, the look of sand.... it may be a little too soon to populate your tank if it is a newly setup tank unless you have some seedlings from a mature tank. Fortunately, there isn't much fishes around so the chances are still good except clam mantle is not really opening....

[speakerphone]

Clam absorbs no3???

[mbbuna]

i just want to add a few things.

the article listed at the top is not accurate. i wouldn't expect DT's to keep an article on there web site that wasn't favorable to phytoplankton

clams are not dependent on filter feed phyto. they are primarily photosynthetic and can sustain themselves on the food provided by there zooxanthellae, through light alone. clams will extract dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus from the water and pass onto there zoox and then the zoox gives the clam sugars as food. clams will filter phyto (and bacteria and zooplankton) but when they do this all they are doing is extracting the same N & P and passing it to the zoox.

one of the arguments of that article is that clams mantles are not fully developed untill they are 4" in length. this is completely false. clams mantles are fully developed and full of zoox within week of metamorphosis. it also says that clams mantles are not large enough to house enough zoox to support the clam untill its 4", false again. the size of a clams mantle is proportionate to the size of the clam through out its life.

another argument some people have for feeding phyto is that clams have a fully functioning digestive system and that if they didn't need to feed they wouldn't have this. so lets look at this. clams gills are multifunctional, they are use for respiration and capturing particulate matter. they can get rid of the gills or they wouldn't be able to breath , clams also constantly replenish there zoox, they use their gills to do this.

the stomach is connected to the zooxanthellae tubular system (where the zoox live) the stomach passes new zoox from the gills to the ZTS , processes the sugars the zoox make (to feed the clam) and pass old, dead and un-viable zoox to the anus.

even though the digestive system isnt needed for filtering phyto, it is still used as a basic function of the clam.

if you want to feed your clams phyto, go ahead. but dont think that they will die if you dont. as long as you have strong light and N & P (fish pee and poo) in the water the clam will do just fine !

[RockyBoy]

I think so also. I have my clam for more than 4 years and I don't feed it anything other than 10k MH light. Been growing from 2.5 inch to more than 4 inch now.

[kareen]

i just want to add a few things.

the article listed at the top is not accurate. i wouldn't expect DT's to keep an article on there web site that wasn't favorable to phytoplankton

clams are not dependent on filter feed phyto. they are primarily photosynthetic and can sustain themselves on the food provided by there zooxanthellae, through light alone. clams will extract dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus from the water and pass onto there zoox and then the zoox gives the clam sugars as food. clams will filter phyto (and bacteria and zooplankton) but when they do this all they are doing is extracting the same N & P and passing it to the zoox.

one of the arguments of that article is that clams mantles are not fully developed untill they are 4" in length. this is completely false. clams mantles are fully developed and full of zoox within week of metamorphosis. it also says that clams mantles are not large enough to house enough zoox to support the clam untill its 4", false again. the size of a clams mantle is proportionate to the size of the clam through out its life.

another argument some people have for feeding phyto is that clams have a fully functioning digestive system and that if they didn't need to feed they wouldn't have this. so lets look at this. clams gills are multifunctional, they are use for respiration and capturing particulate matter. they can get rid of the gills or they wouldn't be able to breath , clams also constantly replenish there zoox, they use their gills to do this.

the stomach is connected to the zooxanthellae tubular system (where the zoox live) the stomach passes new zoox from the gills to the ZTS , processes the sugars the zoox make (to feed the clam) and pass old, dead and un-viable zoox to the anus.

even though the digestive system isnt needed for filtering phyto, it is still used as a basic function of the clam.

if you want to feed your clams phyto, go ahead. but dont think that they will die if you dont. as long as you have strong light and N & P (fish pee and poo) in the water the clam will do just fine !

Thanks for sharing your experience/knowledge...

[reeftask]

I do agree we dont need to feed it. I gave up feeding them after many attempts of they closing the mouth so fast.

[wonder]

i just want to add a few things.

the article listed at the top is not accurate. i wouldn't expect DT's to keep an article on there web site that wasn't favorable to phytoplankton

clams are not dependent on filter feed phyto. they are primarily photosynthetic and can sustain themselves on the food provided by there zooxanthellae, through light alone. clams will extract dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus from the water and pass onto there zoox and then the zoox gives the clam sugars as food. clams will filter phyto (and bacteria and zooplankton) but when they do this all they are doing is extracting the same N & P and passing it to the zoox.

one of the arguments of that article is that clams mantles are not fully developed untill they are 4" in length. this is completely false. clams mantles are fully developed and full of zoox within week of metamorphosis. it also says that clams mantles are not large enough to house enough zoox to support the clam untill its 4", false again. the size of a clams mantle is proportionate to the size of the clam through out its life.

another argument some people have for feeding phyto is that clams have a fully functioning digestive system and that if they didn't need to feed they wouldn't have this. so lets look at this. clams gills are multifunctional, they are use for respiration and capturing particulate matter. they can get rid of the gills or they wouldn't be able to breath , clams also constantly replenish there zoox, they use their gills to do this.

the stomach is connected to the zooxanthellae tubular system (where the zoox live) the stomach passes new zoox from the gills to the ZTS , processes the sugars the zoox make (to feed the clam) and pass old, dead and un-viable zoox to the anus.

even though the digestive system isnt needed for filtering phyto, it is still used as a basic function of the clam.

if you want to feed your clams phyto, go ahead. but dont think that they will die if you dont. as long as you have strong light and N & P (fish pee and poo) in the water the clam will do just fine !

Thanks for sharing, any insight on how to color up a clam ?

You must have lots of nice clams looking at your avatar. It will be great if you can share some pict here.

[katoboy]

I agree with what mbbuna said he well knowledge about what he write well done and here to share my clam too

[mbbuna]

Thanks for sharing, any insight on how to color up a clam ?

You must have lots of nice clams looking at your avatar. It will be great if you can share some pict here.

to color up clams you need strong light, thats it.

some of my clams

[katoboy]

to color up clams you need strong light, thats it.

some of my clams

May I know usually you lit up your light for how many hours ?

[mbbuna]

MH is on for about 10 hours

[katoboy]

MH is on for about 10 hours

I like your black colour clam where you bought it and how much you pay for it