i was at my lfs yesterday and ran across an electric flame scallop. does anyone have one of these? what are the requirements for these guys. will they be safe with a clown fish? how do you care for them? will they be harmed by crabs? i want one but i want to make sure it will be safe in the tank.

Dont get it. They dont live very long in aquariums.

+1

Learn from my mistake. I got one and it immediately pushed itself so deep into the LR that I couldn't even see it let alone get to it without tearing my whole tank apart. I never saw it again until I upgraded tanks and found it's empty shells in the sand. I left them there as a reminder of my stupidity.

They are filter feeders. They can't be supported by the limited amount of nutrients suspended in a nano.

Had one for 6 months and its doing great!

GET IT

That statement seems a bit to definitive.

It seems that if a person were to feed a lot of suspended foods they might do fine.

This does not seem like a good beginner organism. It is likely to need care that modifies the system function of the tank as a whole.

NO

They are nearly impossible to keep. Not saying that it hasn't been done before, but it's definitely not worth attempting, especially by a beginner. Do more research on the subject and you'll find out how difficult they are.

Your right. That was too difinitive. They will not do well in a typical nano. They need heavy supplimental feeding not conducive to a stable nano reef.

You can have them in a species specific tank that you will have to throw allot of 50 nm (if I remember correctly) sized plankton into for them. This means running a very very dirty tank. In a typical reef tank you cannot have one of these due to the high level of contamination from the feeding.

Aren't you a vet?
>.<

Not worth the trouble IMO

So basically,

exactly. but they are freaking beautiful. would almost be worth setting up a species tank for them.

The only system I've personally seen these thrive in was a one hundred and twenty five-ish gallon reef tank (not mine) that had a very deep sand bed crawling with life and only a few clown fish. Even at the LFS they've stopped ordering them, save for special requests, because if they're not sold they usually get sickly or die in a few weeks...

The fact of the matter is, we know that they're filter feeders, but I'm not sure if we know what it is they filter feed *on*. (I could be wrong now, it's been a few years since I did some research on the subject). They may live in an aquarium for a year, as they slowly starve, but almost none make it past a year. Marine invertebrates often die slowly in captivity: they may have 90% of their carbon requirements met per day, but that just means it will take a long time for them to perish. I'll quote Anthony Calfo on this one: "there is no reason to purchase a flame scallop, with their dismal record in captivity and our profound lack of knowledge on their husbandry requirements".

I'm going to try one, with sellfish diet and ultra clam in my non-photo tank.

Go for it, i have had one for a while and its great!
It loves PhytoPheast and basically everything i toss in my tank!

Sweet, have fun watching it die!

lol you think its eating............Give bit more and it will be done for.

Funny i have had it for 6 months and its doing Great!

So having it six months is a success story?

Exactly, it can easily take it that long to slowly starve without showing any signs.

Come back with a 2+ year success story.

you = downer

keep rockin it coop.

Daemonfly is not being a 'downer', he's being realistic.

Dr. Cooper can do whatever he wants, but it is bad form to suggest that a beginner follow his lead and disregard all other (good) advice that has been given.

no, the nature of his wording speaks for itself. this is a site for encouragement and learning, people do things different ways, and if you disagree, make your suggestions. but to say it is "slowly starving" is a downer, either way. there is way too much hostility on this site.

waboosh.

Welcome to the internet.

Srsly though, encouraging people to do things differently isn't the same as encouraging an inexperienced aquarist to buy an animal that almost no one has been able to keep alive.

Had 2 in my old 55g lasted about 6 months they looked like they were doin great but they went down hill fast! I took my lfs advice when i first started boy was that a mistake! I would say hold off on them and do some more research.

So we're supposed to encourage people to kill these animals?
Who cares if it's a 'downer', it's the truth!

i've been to the internet, thanks.

i agree completely with this, i was not disregarding advice and experience. i was just remarking on the attitude.





see below quote

i was not even referring to the topic (EFS), just the nature of these posts

suggesting and giving info is great...but it's just unnecessary to be that unfriendly.

I think you are right but I didn't feel as though DF's post was overly negative. I guess I may be calloused from posting here though.

unfriendly and stern are different things.

Geez people! All i am saying is I have had this thing for at least 6 months and its doing great!
Do as you want , get what you want! Your right, this scallop may die tomorrow, but who knows.

settle down! hahah

the 2 year success story! Many things in your tank wont make it past 2 years. Of course I hope it all does, just saying

NEW FLASH. NONE OF THIS STUFF IS MEANT TO BE IN A TANK PEOPLE

some do great, some dont! I am on this site because I love learning so I am not trying to tell someone what they should and should not do.
Most on this board know much more then I do in regards to salt water aquariums so I welcome all advice. I am not one to start arguements or anything of that sort so just trying to add my experience for anyone interested!

6 months is nothing to brag about, that's what we're saying.

And slashboard, if you think these posts are unfriendly, you might want to lurk more. Most of us are grownups and can handle realistic discussions.

fair enough! I hope it makes it past 2 years ! then i can brag???

and im sure most of us are grownups that can understand simple concepts.

this isn't about realism, it's about the way we choose to interact with each other.

didn't see this one before.

this is a new account, ive been setting up and running tanks for 15+ years and in SW for about 8.

fosi, what you said to me is exactly what i was referring to when i was talking about these pointless internet diatribes. get a life, use this as a resource, not a place to spew smartass remarks.

Nice retort!

You almost make me sorry that I re-thought that reply and deleted it before I saw the above smart-ass retort.

Once again, you have contributed nothing useful to the thread.

you began this with asking me if i was going to ask people to slam their nads into a door after i gave my opinion of encouragement to coop.

so, really, i apologize for my part of being off-topic, but still, that is just ridiculous.

Not to be overly dramatic but do you really think it is good to encourage people to buy animals that have been shown to slowly starve in captivity?

I mean, we're talking about an invertebrate here, but would you encourage someone to keep their german Shepard in a 3x3 cage and feed it nothing but tofu on the chance that they might be able to keep it alive for 6 months?

Srsly, that is a nub way of thinking no matter how many years of experience you say you have.

Son: "Hey dad, I'm going to go and bash by big toes with a hammer because the shore store told me that it would take my shoes fit better."

Dad: "I don't want to be negative so... Keep rockin' it son, don't let the man keep you down!"

strange analogies, what i said before was just praising drcooper for having modest success thus far

This went from scallop discussion to argument to random analogies to more argument and now silence...interesting lol

My LFS (a pretty good one that has the best staff ive ever seen has advised me their are nearly imposible to keep in a nano). but get that little guy worst case is, you get some butter and eat that little ######. its a scalop their delicious!!!!

Mine seems happy. But my tanks rather dirty...dont even know what hes eating but he has his giant list to choose from. I feed a few different kinds of live phyto and zoo planktons along with Phytocrome. Not to mention all the other food suppliments for my other creatures....if it dies then ohh well it was really cool while it lasted and Ill have a couple neat shells to decorate the tank. I had one a few years ago but killed it when topping off I got lazy and dumped the water directly into the display and incedently directly onto my scallop. Ive only had this one for about 3.5 months. Take the given advice for what you feel its worth..in the end you can walk into your LFS with the "advice" you have been given and make your own edjucated decision on weather or not you want to spend the $10 GL whatever choice you make. (I think there may have been some decent advice in between all the flaming and bickering atleast)

yeah my buddy sean has one in his 125. it is almost 3 years old and noticeably bigger than when he bought it. his tank is "all natural" more or less, and as a result of that you can see quite a bit of particulate suspended in the water at all times. he shoots in some zoo plankton from time and vitamin c and thats about all he does to feed it. half the time you cant find it in the tank, but the other half of the time it stays right near the front wide open. we stopped carrying these at my store after only stocking three, because of the whole not wanting to eat/dying problem. his was the last one ive ever sold. and his tank type/size is the only environment ive seen one live in. other than the ocean of course. my first decision as the new fish manager was to stop carrying these asap`.

I say you put 5 or 10 of these in a nice little 10 gallon. Would make for a very nice display.



This was the worst thread ever. I want my 5 minutes back.

Why did you bump the thread then??

I was agitated. Sorry. I just hate reading about people that insist that things that take months to waste away are doing great after a couple weeks.

I used to do the same thing in my early FW planted tank days. I regret every second of claiming that my dying plants were doing awesome, it was shortsighted and I've learned from my early mistakes.

FWIW, I will say that I believe these (and a great many other difficult creatures, like gorgonians) could be properly maintained in a continuously fed tank similar to the one that Steve Weast designed... I will attempt to find a link. Other than that, they really should be left in the ocean... but that's my opinion, and I digress.

Can we make a rule where you have to google search before asking questions?

If you want a EFS:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/flamescallopfaqs.htm