New Crocea Clam

[mrg02d]

Hello all,
I got talked into a Crocea Clam yesterday by my LFS. (Well, more like a local coral store).

I didnt know it was a crocea until later last night when I looked it up on google. I didnt read much to reassure me...

The guy asked about my lights, tanks size, and water parameters and felt this clam would be fine. Its about 2.5in and blue. It took some time to get it to quit moving around in the tank, but now its staying put up on a rock about 12in under the lights.

I have a 20g tank with about 25lbs of live rock and an AquaClear 50 power filter with Purigen in it. My lights are a wavepoint 4-24 T5 24in light with 2-12,000K bulbs and 2-Actinic lights. All bulbs have individual reflectors and hyped to be "super advanced" by Wavepoint.

Today the clam opened up much more than it did yesterday after being put into the tank. It looks to have some ugly spots on it. It seems to be very skiddish when other animals get near it, or a shadow comes over it. Even walking up to the tank makes it "hide". The clam also LAUNCHED a poor little hermit up into the water column when it got onto its mantle!

Here is a picture.
So what do you think? Might this thing live? Water parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:5-10ppm
Calcium: 460ppm
KH:8dKH
Phosphate:0
Salinity:1.023 (slowly trying to bring this up to 1.024 through salty top offs)
Temp: 79F

Matt

 

[match55]

nice~!! it will get use to the shodow that walked by the tank haha
give it sometime ^^

 

[Mitchell0605]

I can't see the 'ugly spots'. It looks quite nice!

 

[mrg02d]

Hello,
Yes the ugly spots are hard to see in the picture. They are rough areas that are missing the nice blue colors that the rest of the mantle has. Looks like scars or old wounds of some sort. I am wondering if they may be from other animals at the LFS that were nipping? The tank has many other LPS and SPS in it with the clams as well as plenty of hermits and other fish.

Do scars get better?
Matt

 

[thincat]

T.Crocea Clams are one of the less hardy of the T. clams. Give it lots of light in the 6k to 10k range and as much penetration as you can and it should do okay.

 

[mrg02d]

Hello,
Thanks for the tips. Might the 12,000K bulbs I have right now be fine until its time for changing?

Also, the clam has opened up a bit more today. Looks much more like the pictures I see online! I can clearly see places where it looks to have been damaged. Kind of like, battle scars or something. Not really brown places that might suggest lack of light, but rough patches. Is there a way to rectify this? I guess I should have gotten a better look at him before buying!

Matt

 

[thincat]

Matt, you will be fine with the lights that you have.