When you buy a clam it shoud show the closing reflex with a shadow or contact. Never buy a clam that has been activley removed from a rock or other substrate it has been attached to. Ie pulled off (NEVER DO THIS), or Cut from. Pulling usually damages the basal foot, cutting can but does so less.
My 8" gold Maxima actually reacts to voices in the room, and as I call it "Winces at my wife's Voice too!"
If the clam is attached to a rock, bite the bullet and get the rock too.
Make sure your carbonate hardness is 120-160 ish ppm (ph should be 8.1-8.4 at that point), and calcium is over 350 ppm, i run mine at 425. Nitrates 10-40 ppm (tops) you need some nitrates, try to have some fish to keep nitrates up. Phosphates Zero or as close to it as possible.
Try to have as much light as you can. My tank is only 16" on that I am running 150mh 5 inchs above water, and two double 55w t5 50-50 fixtures. So far it seems to work for clams throughout the tank for me. Really, any thing deeper then 20" should be MH. Or if you can keep clams in top two thirds of tank. Change your flourescant tubes at least every 6 months (no longer the 8) and your MH's ever year!
In my own experiences/trials I have seen the following critters eat clams:
Yellow tangs-activley
Regal tang (aka hippo tang, blue tang)-actively
Angels (Majestic, regal, french, Emperor, blue face, grey pomachanths, Flame Angel, Lemmon Peel Angel, Blue Pygmy angel) all actively ate clams...
Butterfly's- its a given that's what they do!
Porqupine, and Dog face Puffers -Actively
Large Hemit Crabs-actively
Pepermint Shrimp - Actively feeding on living clam mantle.
Arrow crabs-mmmmHHHH, clams yummy
Watch for thoes nasty bobbet worms too, they make a quick meal of a clam.
A lot of inverts the crawl with bug clams when they walk on them, i try to keep them to a minimum and only run with Algae Eating hermits. Oh, and NO STARFISH! MMMWWWAAAHHHAHAH alot of them eat clams better safe then sorry.
The real kicker is that if a clam is constantly harrased or thretened they don't open to siphon feed or "light" feed, and then gradually die out. To this end, make sure there are no "stinger" corals contacting the clam....Noh GOOD!
Recently i have shut my protien skimmer off part time. I run it at night, that's usually when my clams are closed up and anyways. Nthing has been produced in it. I am keeping a close eye on it.
Keep Salinity stable, and TEMP!
I feed ALOT OF Nannochloropsis and Tetraselmis (live phytoplankton), and throw in some Rotifers (Zooplankton). Also on occasion Selcon*, but not too often.
Well, I don't know if this helps you. I say this is my own experiences in the past 3 years, not the "Normal" persay.
It is about all that i can puke up. The compatibility thing, better safe then sorry and thoes critters listed I have had problems with.
Some opinons may varry, as will the results. Good luck, look forward to seeing more stuff.....
