Jump to content

Food for clam


fishtalk1517
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • SRC Member

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. :yeah:

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. :cry:

A person, himself can be his own Lawyer, but he can never be his own Judge ........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • SRC Member

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • SRC Member

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • SRC Member
juz a sharing of my clams :P

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?

:) Greeting :)

Tank: 4' by 2' by 2' (CR antique)

Sump: 3' include 1' refuigm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?? :huh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • SRC Member

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....

:) Greeting :)

Tank: 4' by 2' by 2' (CR antique)

Sump: 3' include 1' refuigm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

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 :rolleyes:

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 :D , 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 !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • SRC Member
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 :rolleyes:

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 :D , 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...

:) Greeting :)

Tank: 4' by 2' by 2' (CR antique)

Sump: 3' include 1' refuigm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
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 :rolleyes:

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 :D , 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. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

bnwht9.jpg

m5fq9.jpg

img12955tl.jpg

img13392ix.jpg

derasa014ar.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share



×
×
  • Create New...