copepods are coinsidered to be zooplankton (animals), since they eat phytoplankton(plants). having a
hob refugium setup for copepods is a great source of food for a reeftank, but not for clams.
as far as clam feeding...... i found this on reefs.org;
T. crocea has adapted to the strong illuminated environment and therefore does not take up any floating particles such as phytoplankton or others.
T. derasa is also a "clear water clam" that does not filter anything. It has, in fact very sensitive gills that tend to clog when there is a high density of floating particles in the water, may this be planctonic food or just stirred up sediments from the gravel.
But
T. gigas does benefit from phytoplanctonic food, if it does not come in too big concentrations.
Same for
Hippopus hippopus, which (unfortunately) is very seldom available in trade. Recent works have shown that among all tridacnid clams
H. h. has the worst adaptation to the symbiosis with the zooxanthellae.
With
T. squamosa and
T. maxima I'm not sure, but I suppose that they do benefit from it since they are normally occuring between 5 to 15 m (T. m.) and 10 to 15 m (T. s.), so they can live in a deeper and darker environment.
But in any case of feeding it should not be done directly to the clam, but only into the whole tank system.
best thing to feed clams is lots of light!
hope this helps!
