To feed or not to feed?

[WestPat]

I posted with pics of my new crocea. It is doing well still, but for the last two days its exhalant siphon has been open a little wider than I feel is normal. I measured and it is 18 inches from the halide, a new 13K Aqualine. I also bought a new actinic today, my old one was OLD!
Anyway, I also bought some homebrew phyto and some Kent Micro Vert. Will this supplemental feeding help or is there any reason to. The siphon is open almost from mantle to mantle. Is the wide open siphon stress, hunger, or just normal?

Thanks for your input,
David

[Sue Truett]

David, what size crocea is this clam??? If it is less than 2 or maybe 3" I would still supplemental feed it. These size clams are not yet big enough to have ample mantle surface to live off of the algae in their mantle from the lighting. What you do is take some tank water out and put it in a small container put the clam in the container and feed the clam. Give it say 30 minutes and the bowel should be clear and the clam happily fed. I don't like Kent's Micro Vert and would rather use DT's as it is a live based plankton food. I still use it to feed my tank and as I only have 1 baby clam right now I feed the baby about 2-3 times weekly and feed the entire tank a couple of other times weekly. Once the clam reachs a size of over 3" I think it is fine to go with feeding the tank only. Remeber when replacing the clam into the tank to "burp" it so no air bubbles are trapped in the shell.

To burp a clam gently hold it on the end and gently swish the clam back and forth so any trapped air bubbles are let out.

[WestPat]

It is 3.5 inches. It has ben gaping its siphon for two days now, but once I turned off the halide yesterday, to acclimate a new coral, it returned to "normal" size for the rest of the evening.
I did have the intake lower than the exhale, but I moved the rock to raise it up. Now this morning the clam has moved itself off of the rock, about 1" away. The byssal gland is still intact, and it does not look like it left any residue on the rock.

The only possible problem is that there is a tube anemone in the half of the tank where the clam is, but even at full extension of its tentacles it is still 3-4" away. I have seen no other distressed behavior other than the siphon, and I am afraid the clam may have hopped off because of me moving the rock around.

Anyway, I want to do what I can to make it healthy, and not stress it any worse.

Should I place it back on the rock, or on a seashell half that I have.(It is one that I collected)

One last thing, I have tried to email Sue, but it will not go through.

Thanks for your concern,
David

[WestPat]

Went out of town for a few days, came back into town, clam is still doing great. It seemed to have turned itself a little bit, but it seems great. I will just keep on trucking with it.

All things are in God's hands,
David

[Casey]

David I think it will be fine,just make sure he gets some good light an dts every now and then

[WestPat]

Casey,
Sorry I did'nt get by. Spent what little time I had hitting AquaWorks in Pensacola. If you have never been there it is worth stopping by when you are in the area. He has some nice indo-pacific croceas and maximas, as well as lps, soft, and sps corals.

Thanks for the encouragement,
David