clams

[SteveS]

and finally....

clams....im hoping to add a blue maxima clam to my system in a few weeks time, any advice in keeping them?

ive read a trace of nitrate and phosphate is not such a bad thing, so no probs there!

calcium...is dripping kalk really neccesary or would weekly water changes be enough?

if dripping kalk/white vinegar is a must what methods (hints&tips) do you use?

thanks
steve

[Kev]

Hi Steve

I have had a T. Deresa, got it over 6 months ago. I never put any additives / calc in the water, neither do I target feed it.

Its a good as the day I got it.

I just do a water change on a 2 weekly basis.

Kev

[Gillybaby]

I've had a gold maxima for nearly two years now. Got it from Steve at Coral Cultivations. I don't supplement with kalk or anything, just water changes and the clam is doing great. Its grown from about 1" to about 2-3" in size in that time. I was told that very small maximas require feeding with live phyto until they have enough surface area for zooxanthellae to take over the feeding. I did this to start with but once it got to about 2" I stopped. Its still extending well and growing so it must be ok.

Maximas are rock clams so need some liverock to attach to and they also need fairly strong light. Mine is at the top of my rockwork under a 250w metal halide. A good idea, and one I wished we'd been told of before placing our clam, is to attempt to attach it to a fairly small piece of rock on your sand bed to start with. This way you can then place the clam anywhere you want in the tank and acclimatise to your lighting. We put ours on a big rock and it won't budge now, its a pain if we want to move it cause we can't :(

I think the main thing you need to watch out for when buying a clam are the little pyramid snails that can prey on them. When you get your clam it is important to examine the foot and remove any such snails. I have a sixline wrasse which is the natural predator of these snails anyway so I've never seen any in my tank. Just thought I'd warn you but you probably know that already ;)

HTH