hitch-hiker clam thing

[blk_g20]

what do you guys make of this clam. i found him clinging on the glass this morning. he is actually off the sand bed, clinging on the glass like a snail. i hope its not a bad thing cus i've started liking him.

[samthebigfish]

OHH MY GOD!!! i had the very same thing and a piece that i bought, i thought i was going crazy, so i pulled him off and throught it away( that might have been a really stupid thing to do). i would also like to know what the heck it is.

[blk_g20]

i also have another clam that i thought was a rock, but opened up one day. that one look different than the one pictured, has an oval opening that pokes out. that one doesn't move as its attached to a rock. i hope they survive the cycle, i'm only a week into it.

[surfy]

I have smaller ones like that. They don't really do much so I guess they are fine to leave in there. They will die if there isn't enough food in the water for them to filter feed on.

[tinyreef]

just curious, what kind of rock did you get that from? occasionally you'll see hitchhiking clams of some sort make it on coral rubble pieces due to the way they're harvested (i.e. directly form the reef, chipped away, allowed if small enough). these survive pretty well because they're handled gingerly (in comparison to typical LR that's collected).

 

now we are seeing a couple of people with clam hitchhikers. to me that means one of a couple of possibilities.

 

-they might've come from a cultured piece of rock (e.g. another hobbyist, gulf-view, long-term rubble in a lfs).

 

-they could have migrated like the example mentioned above, with coral pieces or on the back of another animal.

 

-orrrr they were on LR that was picked/chipped from the actual reef (a no-no in the collection process :pirate: ) rather than from the rubble pile or 'wild-cultured' pile. this is probably to bypass normal process times and procedures in order to feed the recent growing popularity of the hobby.

 

just curious, nothing against you. just curious who you bought your LR from and when.

 

those clams will likely need to be fed and placed with decent flow. it may just settle down to an optimal position on its own but i'd place it back on the LR. hth

[blk_g20]

i got my rocks from gulf-view. had them in my tank for a week. this particular clam was a 'loose' piece from the rocks. the other one, not pictured, is actually stuck onto a small rock. so you are suggesting that i pull this one off the glass and place it back on top of a rock. i guess that would look less silly...i've never seen a clam hanging off glass....until this morning.

[surfy]

I would leave it so you dont hurt it. Mine seem to move around the tank trying to find good feeding spots. Sometimes they will attach to the glass for a few days, then they usually move again.