[skylergirl]

I am new to clam keeping. I JUST bought a 3-4" duresa about a week ago and it is currently doing fine.

I bought a rock with about 12 ricordia polyps on it. When I inspected it today, I noticed that one of the ricordia is planted on top of a baby clam. The clam might be about 1" or maybe smaller. When the ricordia opens up, it kinda hides/spreads over the clam.

When I looked carefully, I could see the clam was open. The mantle looked brown with white spots. But it was very difficult to see as the clam did not open much. The shell has ridges, it might be a squamosa??? I do not know.

Here is my problem. The clam is positioned such that if I reposition the rock so the clam is facing up to get light, then I will squash some of the ricordia.

I cannot pry the clam out of the rock. One of its valves is entirely buried in the rock.

Is there a way to remove the ricordias without damaging/killing them so that I can reposition the rock?

I tried target feeding it today, but it just shut up tight. I've read you are supposed to target feed baby clams.

Any suggestions for this newbie would be GREATLY appreciated!!! I would love to save this clam if it is within my abilities.

Please help ASAP!!![-bigmouth]

 

[Rook]

Well first of all, the clam is more important than the ricordia, IMO, just for the fact that the clam will not reproduce, the other ricordia will.

You must make sure the clam has adequate lighting and it must be setting with the top toward the light. Make sure it has plenty of room to open and that it is not being shadowed by anything (ricordia) or being irritated by anything and thus not opening.

Do not spray food directly at the clam. A 3-4" derasa or squamosa does not need to be directly feed, although feeding will definately make for a happier clam. What size tank do you have? You can likely just feed the tank and the clam will feed that way. If you spray food directly at the clam, it will take in too much food and clog its inners. That is why it shut on you. You can take the clam out of the tank, place it in a bowl, feed the bowl with food and leave the clam until the water clears, but only if you really know what you are doing since this will stress you clam and more so if you mess up.

I would just feed the tank. What are you feeding? DT's and Knop's KoralVitF are both great products that I use and recommend to use.

Removing the clam? The clam may have attached itself to the rock. If you want to remove it and it has done so, you need to take a new razor blade, and cut the bysal glad (the white part sticking to the rock) as close to the rock as you can. Do not cut close to the clam, but close to the rock. If it is not attached, but wedge in there, you just need to find a way to get it out such as moving the rocks.

Do you have a pic? Maybe we can id it for you. If it has cutes, it is likely a squamosa, not a derasa.

 

[skylergirl]

Hi Rook

I think you got confused reading my post. I own a 3-4" deresa. But the clam I am asking for help is a 1" squamosa(?) attached to the ricordia rock. It is not even the size of a quarter.

Hope this helps.

 

[shermlock]

Ricordia is very good at repositioning itself if it has a chance. It would be difficult if was buried to do so but I have had ricordia flip around with ease so position the rock to benefit the clam. Even if you prop the rock up just barely off the substrate, the ricordia will eventually right itself. I have done this quite a few times to get a rock positioned just right with the ricordia on it. I also put some flatter pieces next to the rock, just in case the ricordia want to move off the original rock. I realize you don't want to risk flipping the rock so make sure the original rock is stable. Hope this helps and hey congrats on the baby...clam that is!
Sherm

 

[Rook]

Then you must feed the tank and heavy. Feeding will help you other corals as well as you sand bed, if you have one. Check the link in my signature. Lots of clam info. If the clam is attached, I would only move it if it is not getting adequate light because it is being blocked or if it is not opening its mantle on a side because the ricorda is irritating it.

 

[PaintGuru]

I don't see what feeding the tank has to do with things, but perhaps I missed something while reading. Now is the polyp attached to the shell of the clam or the flesh/mantle? I'd be surprised if it was able to attach to the mantle (I hope I'm spelling that right!). If it is simply on the shell and opening over the mantle, I would just cut it off, what is one polyp out of 12, like Rook said, they will reproduce. If it is covering that much of the mouth area, I would defitely remove it.

 

[skylergirl]

The ricordia is attached to the top of the shell. When the ric opens up, it almost covers the shell and the mantle. As I said, the clam is very small. I will do some "surgury" and try to remove some of the ricordia so that I can reposition the rock. As it stands now, the clam is pointing directly downward.

As I said before, I originally bought the rock for the ricordia. The clam was certainly a surprise. I have no idea if it is healthy or not.

In the past, I use to acclimate everything before putting it in the tank. When I had purchased some corals from different sources and stores, they would tell me not to acclimate the corals because the slim build up in the bag could kill the coral. I had 3 different places tell me that acclimating corals was not necessary.

So, when I bought the ricordia rock, guess what, I didn't acclimate it. I did float the bag so that the temperature would equalize, but that was about it. Who knew that there would be a clam in ricordia. So I am afraid that not acclimating the ricordia rock would have shocked the clam.

If anybody has the time and patience to come over and help me with this, I would make it worth your while. I am in Ypsilanti. The sooner the better. I am afraid of disturbing the ricordia and killing the clam in the process.

I will try today to see if I can get the ricordia off the vital places on the rock.

Thanks guys!

Sunny

 

[PaintGuru]

Ah so the polyps point in the opposite direction of the clam? If that is the case, I'd just try cracking the rock between the clam and polyps so you can position the clam somewhere else. Is this possible?

 

[Specialk]

Can you remove a ricordia like you could a mushroom?
Cut it down at the base and get as much off as possible?

 

[skylergirl]

I had made a similar post to clamdirect.

Folks there seem to think the clam could just be a scallop or some other bivalve, but definately not a tridacna clam because of where ricordias are usually collected.

Either way, just to be safe, I will try to save the clam and give it optimal conditions until I can figure out what it is exactly.

I will be trying to cut the ricordia off the top half of the bivalve shell. Currently, I repositioned it so that it is sitting directly pointing up, or close to it. It is also on the highest rock in my tank so it is nearest the light source. I am only using 4 x 65 watt (2 daylight, 2 actinics) in a 75 gallon tank.

Any advice on how to cut away a ricordia or mushroom? How will I reattach it....rubberband, glue???

thanks!

 

[PaintGuru]

Use a flat razor blade to cut it as close to the rock as possible. Superglue gel or a rubberband may help, or even putting it in an area with low flow.

 

[Rook]

Either way you got a nice little bonus. Bi-valves are rear to come by, but need lots of food as most are not photosynthetic. If you ever want to get rid of it, let me know.

 

[canisson]

Skyler, I would just try to take a really sharp razor, and cut the nearest rics as close as possible to the rock/clam, and remove them from the piece. Then take a leftover piece of LR, or a small piece in the tank, buy some toole from a fabric store (ask...they'll know what it is if my spelling is wrong) cover the rics LOOSELY with the toole, mouth-side up of course, binding the fabric underneath the rock with a rubber band or string. Leave it alone for a week or 2 and the rics should re-attach themselves to the rock. Worked for me...hope this helps! If I lived closer to Ypsi, I'd offer to come over and look at things with you. This weekend I may be going to the Trop, if you'd like a visual opinion this Sunday, I'll see what I can do.

 

[skylergirl]

For any of you folks interested, here is a picture of the clam

http//home.comcast.net/~runningwhippet/fish/bivalve.jpg

Remember, it is about the size of a quarter. The lights were already off in the tank when I took this pic.

 

[Rook]

If Barry at clamsdirect cannot id it, try Dr. Shimek. He is an invert specialist and may be able to give some help on the id.