Anyone else have the IPSF Sandbed Clams?

[Fasciatus]

...and how did you make out with them? Care and feeding?

Acclimated them for several hours this morning, left them sitting in a nice level part of the sandbed where they could burrow. At present two of the six have disappeared, can't tell if they burrowed, or were knocked somewhere else by the tang, one of whose hobbies is making mischief.

How in the world do they move about and burrow? Can someone recommend a good link to read up on these buggers?

This experience should be very interesting.

[Fasciatus]

Species is Tapes japonicus.

No reply in a day... I wonder, is this an active forum?

[MiNdErAsR]

Very active forum. Perhaps you're the only one with those clams?

[Fasciatus]

The fourth of six buried himself beneath the sandbed yesterday evening. Interesting, how they submerge one by one.

Eventually I'd like to try one or two of the more exciting clams, if a clam can be exciting... I guess with a set of blue Bridgette Bardot lips, it can... to some of us .... ;)

But this reef is only a tad over a year old. I don't consider the system mature enough for the more exotic and delicate invertabrates. At least not until I fix this hair algae problem. :eek2:

[GH Sniper]

You may want to send a message to Daniel Knop or visit his web site (http://www.knop.de/englisch/index.htm)

[KillerReef]

A little late, but I do have those sandbed clams from IPSf. They move at night only. I have woke up in the midle of the night to see them out, but if you have hermits be careful. I have lost 2 of my original 6 to darn hermits. I hate those things. HTH

[Newreeflady]

What kind of hermits? I thought hermits were desirable in reef tanks, but if they eat clams I might have to think twice.. hmm.

angela.

[KillerReef]

5-6 red legged hermits, a number of hermits that came with my IPSF orders(abbout 10), a hitchhiker blue legged...

But remember these are very small clams, about .5 - 1 in, not your normal pretty clams. I have a maxima that the hermits don't bother at all.

I thought they were beneficial also, but thru some reading and my own experience, I have seen that they can be detrimental. They have diminished my snail population and as mentioned above have eaten two of my si snadbed clams...


HTH

[piercho]

I've had the IPSF clams in my tank over 4 months. My DSB is 5" deep and composed of very fine (much finer than "oolitic") lagoonal sand. My tank volume is 65G and I don't skim. I got 6 and have had no mortalities that I know of.

Unless they dig in right next to the glass it is very hard to observe them. They almost never (in my sand) extend their siphons higher than the level of the sand. The best way to "see" them is to look for the little "puffs" of waste that they occasionally eject. They can move, but tend to stay put in my tank. The most I've had one move is about 9". Mine move by traveling through the sand, not over the top of the sand. I saw one moving on one occasion, it would retract it's siphon then extend it a centimeter (roughly) away, repetetively.

Now I'm going to go on memory: I think that Dr Ron identified these as genus Tapes and said that they feed (mainly) on bacteria in the water column. As I recall, he said that they could process a lot of water a day and had a relatively high nutritional requirement. I once saw a tiny dot of IPSF "coral heaven" go down one's siphon and it didn't immediately eject it, so I think that it ate that piece of food. From this I'm going to speculate that they can make use of detritus in the water column that they happen to siphon in.

I recently dug one up and in 4 months I estimate that it had at more than doubled it's mass.

I'm not sure what positive role they play in the DSB or the tank. They add diversity, but it's a diversity that is darn hard to observe. I tell my wife "thats a clam" and she say's "where". Unless you have an eye for clam siphons (I'm a hard-core clam-digger) you'll probably never "see" them again.

[Fasciatus]

Thanks for letting me know what happened... I had no idea what to expect. I haven't seen them for a while, but I'll look carefully for those syphons!

[ClamLover]

Anyone have a picture of an IPSF Sandbed clam ? I've been hearing about it but not been able see it... Sure sounds interesting to keep some...

[Nanook]

Mine appear to be popping up dead and empty here lately, they have been in my tank for about 4 months.

Nanook

[Fasciatus]

This is not my picture, but close:

http://animalpicturesarchive.com/animal/ViewImg.cgi?img=a3/KoreanShell-Manila_Clam_J01-closeup_on_pebbles.jpg

Not flashy, but they don't require metal halide lighting either ;)

[ClamLover]

Thanks for the pic Rob, I may be able to get hold of a dozen of them... however I'm not sure if they consume bacteria or consume detritus, the latter would be better -- could be good for my DSB.