Clam on my live rock, question

[Odin909]

Hi


I bought some live rock about 2 1/2 weeks ago. It had a clam on it with it being open . the clams mouth was open . Now i look today and the clams mouth is shut.

Does this mean the clam is alive ? if so, what do i feed it , and any other info would help.

thanks

[Fishieness]

sounds like it is alive.
the normal hitchicker clam will eat phytoplankton.
i personaly wouldnt suggest feeding it. a clam so small may be fine in a tank because of the natural algaes that grow. and if it does starve and die, then that means that your nutrients are probably pretty low, which in most reef settings, is a good thing.
however, if you do want to feed it and dont mind adding in nutrients that are most likely not goign to be used before they are skimmed out or rot, i would suggest dt's live phytoplankton. all the dried stuff is pretty useless IMO.

[Odin909]

THANKS
for reply


sounds like my clam. i am glad it is alive and would like to keep it. psythoplankton , not familier with it, i got frozen mysis, that work ?

i will go read up on clams now. thanks again

[Fishieness]

naw, mysis wont work. many filterfeeding animals are extremely picky about their food particle size.
clams feed by using thier gills to filter food out of the water colum. if their gills get clogged because of the large food particle size, they can suffocate and die, so they will regect anything that gets near them, even large amount of phytoplankton.
also, i believe phyto is about 200 microns in size (i could be wrong on the exact size, bu lets jsut say they are TINY), obviously, a heck of a lot smaller than mysis. haha

[Odin909]

thanks again.


i am reading up on them and see they feed in many ways. i am on the right path, thanks for the help