our blue clam keeps falling over ??

lifesareef · 04-09-2009, 01:03 PM

We had a small 1.5-2" blue maximus clam for about a month. He is in the sand in low to moderate flow. He just can't seem to stay upright. He kept still for about a week.now He falls over constanlty. We've tried to place a rock in the substrate for him to cling onto and that seems to be worse. Now that he is falling over so much, it looks like my crabs are eating him!
What can we do?

diggler · 04-11-2009, 05:35 PM

I have had good luck cutting A piece of 1 1/2 pvc putting the clam in it with a rock to cling onto. it seems to work good but you might need bigger or smaller pvc for clam to sit in.

REEFIN'ROB · 09-05-2009, 12:38 PM

i bury a flat piece of rock just below the sand bed and place small clams on top they usually attach and then you can pick up the rock and move them if you want to.

lunatank21 · 09-05-2009, 02:34 PM

It sounds like the issue might be that the byssal gland has not attached to anything yet. If it is a new addition to your tank, check to make sure that the gland was/is not damaged from transport. Otherwise the ideas listed above are good ways to get the gland to attach to something that will give the clam leverage from falling over and will allow you to move it later without having to detach the byssal gland.