New clam, torn foot

[cwatkins]

Hi All,

I picked up a Squamosa clam from OA on Tuesday night, they had a sale, $15 off.

Anyway, when I got home and acclimated it, I noticed the foot was torn and hanging by a thread.

Do these clams recover from this, or should I be returning it to the store?

Cheers.

P.S. After reading a bit, it could just be the fibers? It was a fair sized chuck of meat though hanging from the bottom of the clam.

[gobytron]

put up a pic for a reliable answer.

OA is pretty good, I'd be surprised if they sold you one with a badly damaged foot....

stranger things have certainly happened though.

[christyf5]

Its likely just part of the byssal gland, what the clam uses to hold itself upright by attaching to things. When placing it on the sandbed put something underneath the clam for it to grab onto, an empty snail shell works well if you have one handy.

A pic would help though so we can assess the damage if there is any.

[cwatkins]

Ok, I'll grab a picture Sunday when I do some aquarium work.

[Borderjumper]

Does it have a hole in it? These clams that came in from Vanuatu are all aqua cultured. I doubt if they were ever attached to rock? I wonder nqw just how they are cultured?

[cwatkins]

See attached image. Does it look okay? I think it was just the threads

[fkshiu]

It should be OK. The byssal gland itself still looks intact. The clam is now, however, more vulnerable to attack by pyramid snails from underneath.

You can minimize the chances of this by making sure the clam firmly reattaches itself to a solid surface thus sealing off its soft underbelly. A nice trick is to prepare a handful of epoxy putty and smoosh the clam onto the epoxy while it's still pliable. You'll end up with a perfect imprint of the clams bottom. Set the epoxy aside to harden - you don't want to leave the clam on the hardening epoxy since it gives off a lot of heat that could hurt the clam. After the epoxy hardens, you now have a custom mount for your clam making it very difficult for snails to burrow underneath to attack the byssal gland. You also have a handy dandy mobile base should you ever need the move the clam in the future.

You should carefully trim the loose byssal threads with a scalpel or an extremely sharp pair of scissors before remounting the clam. I find that this encourages the clam to reattach itself more quickly. Make sure not to cut too close to the gland itself.

Keep a close eye for the teeny little snails at night (they are nocturnal). They look like tiny pointed grains of rice. Remove manually if you see any. Wrasses like six-lines do help by eating the snails, but unfortunately the fish are usually asleep when the snails are most active at night.

There is also the danger of the clam expelling the byssal gland in its entirety. This is not necessarily fatal, but it does expose the clam even more to attack from underneath and prevents it from reattaching to rock.

[christyf5]

Excellent advice Franklin

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

Does it have a hole in it? These clams that came in from Vanuatu are all aqua cultured. I doubt if they were ever attached to rock? I wonder nqw just how they are cultured?

OA had some clams come in from Sri Lanka I believe, or at least hat was wendells expectation last time I was in last weekend.

These are likely NOT aquacultred.

Also, a simpler way to encourage a clam to attach to your rock work is to buld a temporary support out of extra live rock for a couple of weeks, then take the rocks down, put them back in your sump and presto...clam right where you want it.


Have used this method 4 times in the past, all with success.

[cwatkins]

Ok, I've placed a little shell under him. If he hasn't attached to that in a couple weeks I'll pickup some putty next time I'm at J&L.