Squamosa Growth Question

[blizzardscout2]

I have a Squamosa that grew like crazy the first month I had him and now has not grown at all in a few months. Do they have specific growth periods? Thanks.

 

Reese

[javisaman]

Do you dose calcium? Squamosa clam is one of the larger species of tridacna, it will out grow your tank quickly. If your not dosing calcium, then it may have stopped growing because it depleted your tanks supply (it should be dead in that case...).

[kgehrke]

Calcium and Alkalinity are important. So is feeding. If you have it in a biocube get it out. They get HUGE.

 

Good luck.

[Urchinhead]

Good grief! It won't die because of a lack of calcium. It will just stop growing. Check your Ca and CaCO3 (alk) levels and keep them at 420 and 8-10 dKh.

 

They also get to be about 18"+ in size so keep that in mind.

[javisaman]

I meant in extreme cases (aka 0ppm Ca+...)

[nematoad]

I meant in extreme cases (aka 0ppm Ca+...)

 

Good cover. I also believe that they will die at 0 ppm H20, but I could be mistaken.

 

I also believe that NSW is also 0 ppm Ca+.

[javisaman]

Calcium concentration of NSW: 411 ppm ( Karl K Turekian: Oceans. 1968. Prentice-Hall)

 

Going off topic, but Ca+ is important for other cellular processes and not just growth. Not sure about inverts, but it is necessary for enzyme function, cell signaling, muscle contraction, as well as other things in vertebrates.

 

To the OP check levels as Urchin mentioned.

[Psychosis]

I would reccomend removing it to be honest. They truely do get massive, I saw one at 16 inches the other day. It's more a show piece for something like a 120 then a resident in a nano.

[Mike Maddox]

Take it easy, nematoad.

 

Squamosas are large, fast growing clams that need a large system and lots of calcium supplementation, and are definitely not nano reef candidates.

[Urchinhead]

Actually you could keep a hippo (dora) tang in a nano. It just isn't good in the long term for the fish. If that doesn't matter to you then go nuts.

 

My point being that a Squamosa or Derasa are ok for a nano tank until they get to the point of being too big for the tank. When that happens then you either have to move it, wait for it to die, or hope it doesn't grow any larger. Theoretically once it reaches a given set of boundaries (ie walls of the tank) it will stop growing. I can't say for sure as I have never tried this nor have I bothered to research the literature as its a waste of time for a moot point.

 

And while they are somewhat fast growing you can moderate that growth by controlling the over all amount of calcium in the system. Having low (not zero) calcium just means that they will not grow as quickly as if there were an abundance of it in there. It *WILL NOT* kill them. Same deal goes for LPS/SPS corals. Low Ca means slow growth not death. CaCO3 on the other hand is a big issue and can/will kill if its too far out of whack.

 

Overall I am a very big fan of clams in Nano tanks for two reasons. First is they are very efficient nitrate and phosphate filters and good supplements for chemical/mechanical filtration. Second is they are good looking. Overall a Win/Win.

 

While I would not recommend a Derasa/Squamosa/Giga in anything under a 40 gallon and then with some trepidation it is not a "oh my God I am going to go to hell!" offense to do so. More of a "I realize I am being selfish and somewhat stupid but don't care so piss off" offense.

[slashxBoard]

Good cover. I also believe that they will die at 0 ppm H20, but I could be mistaken.

 

I also believe that NSW is also 0 ppm Ca+.

 

hahahaha dude invest in a chiller.

you know, so you can chill dafuk out