Tridacnid Work Shop

[Tone]

well thats good to know but how long was this proccess? the flesh has come away from the the inner mantel it still opens but looks messed up on one part?

Hi Morgan, mine healed itself in about 8 weeks. Your's sounds to have a bit more serious damage.

Tone

 

[quibrzif]

Good to see that the thread is alive. Can I ask a question?

How to fight the turf algae, growing on the Tridacna's shell:

and keep the small bristle worms from taking residence on shell too?

Nitrates and phosphates are zero, but have a bryopsis and green microalgae on the walls. This is a filter feeders, not a sparkling clean sps tank. The bulbs change is not overdue, manual removing is next to impossible and doesn't help - algae returns.

 

[Maxx]

Those look to be fairly small Maxima's. Are they attached to something cemented down?

Have you thought about an urchin for the tank? I've got a diadema urchin that scours the tank for algae...including the shells of my Derasa and Crocea clams.

Nick

 

[joker577]

They look more like squamosas because of the shell plating growth

 

[burning2nd]

quibrzif Im in the same boat as you...

i cut the tuff algea, off... but as im sure you already know... dont mess with the bryopsis..

 

[Tone]

Bryopsis? The Devil! Have it in my tank, all over my clams for 18 months ... did the dark periods of 1 week off and 1 week on for 3 weeks and suceeded in killing one of my clams and creating serious 'psychological' problems for the other 3. So long as there is any level of PO4 the B will thrive. How's your Mg levels? If you need, raise them to around 2100ppm with Kent Tech-M and keep the level high for a few weeks. Tech-M for some reason is about the only stuff that seems to overcome B ... must be some secret ingredient? Otherwise, keep on pluckin'.

Tone

 

[quibrzif]

Tone:
I did twice the increased magnesium treatment, first time with Seachem product (Mg sulphate), then with Kent Tech-I, as recommended. This almost killed my pavona, green and beige porites on Christmas tree rocks, but bryopsis returns always. I used RC thread about it, but result was different.

joker577:
It was sold as baby Tridacna maxima, here is how it's mantle looks:

and the shell at beginning:

burning2nd:
Thanks, will continue to do that. Yesterday tried ChemiClean to oxidize the organics, settled on tank's surfaces, including shells. So far not much difference. Tried also Red Sea ProtoBac, didn't helped.

maxx:
I bought them as Baby T. Maximas, 3/4" in size:

The attached themselves to the rock, and one moved around, until settled near the second. They grow, and after an year they were too close to each other. Had to cut off both and place them on halves of shells, like Clams Direct forum described. The are still attached to the half-shells, and I'm not happy about it: the microfood settles there and bristle worms found their way even there.

It's a small tank, 20g long, the urchin may damage or displace the Christmas tree rocks.

I was hoping on more radical solution, except for making personal clean tank for clams.

I know, that they will grow big. If they overgrow the tank width, I'll try to give them to somebody else.

Thank you all for the help and info!

 

[capdippe]

Very good thread, Thank you Barry. I'm new to the forum and reef keeping, but this was very helpful.

 

[ryansreef]

Great information!