Clams and anemones

[Captain Clam]

Just thought I'd let you all know, clams are safe with BTA's. I stressed long and hard before adding a BTA to my clam tank. When I finally found a beautiful bright green one, I had to buy it. I moved all of my clams away from the rocks since the BTA is supposed to stay on the rocks. Anyway, as you may have read, I have an amazing climbing clam (maxima) that climbed up a few inches from the sandbed on a rock. I was gone last weekend and my BTA moved and stole the clam's spot on the rock. The clam is now sitting on the sandbed right under the anemone and looks perfectly normal. He doesn't react at all to the BTA's tentacle brushing by him. I have read that clams are immune to most types of stings from other animals, and at least in this case, for this clam, it was true.

I certainly don't encourage anyone to throw clams into thier anemones to test this out, but I can say first hand in my case eveything turned out OK. ;)

[Barry N.]

It would be nice to get a picture. ;)

Barry

[zhenya]

Hi Captain,
I'm glad it's working out for you regarding anemone.I had however rather bad experience with the bta(rose in my case) and clams(squamosa).I had my 9" squamosa for about 5mo and after I introduced a rose bta it sort of parked next to the clam and made it a home I read as well that clams are imune to the stings of corals but hear now that it maybe not true.To make a long story short,my clam is dead and anemone lives on;) I'll add a pic so you can see just how close the anemone was to my beautifull clam.In short,i'm weary of keeping clams with anything other then SPS and other clams although I'm realy happy to see that your anemone is withholding the attack mode I've read in Dr.Ron's booklet about anemones that they just do it all of a sudden.Sort of lean over and kill corals and clams,he especially mentioned Heteractis crispa in that regard.He says that they may coexist for years in the tank and then for no reason at all they just go on a"rampage" and in their travels kill sorals and clams
I have one in my tank and I keep a close eye on it(doubt it'll help me though).

[Captain Clam]

That sucks Gene. Sorry to hear it. I have moved my maxima away from the BTA since I was afraid he wasn't getting enough light. I took a couple of pics and I'll try to get them posted tonight. Can the anemones control whether their tentacles are stinging or not. You'll see when I post the pictures that this clam wasn't next to my BTA, he was basically in it. The tentacles were "massaging him constantly. Anyway, I won't push my luck and I'll get those pictures posted soon. BTW, If your rose ever splits... My anemone is second only to my clams as favorite inhabitants. I really want a rose some day. PM if you ever have "surplus" clones.

[zhenya]

Hi Captain,
It nad not split yet in my tank,but I do know that it's a clone of some other rose and it should do it eventualy When it does,you'll hear from me It's huge anemone and I'm not sure why it didn't split yet,maybe it's maturity thing ?
here's a pic of it taken recently

[Captain Clam]

Your tank is spectacular! And that is one monster anemone. How big is the tank? I'm just about to purchase a new tank, my first big one (at least it's big to me). I'm getting an oceanic 120RR. My largest tank previously is my 72BF FOWLR. I'm kind of overwhelmed trying to decide what sort of theme I want in this new tank. The focus will of course be clams, and the reason I chose a BTA is since they live on the rocks I figured I could keep them seperate from my clams. All my clams currently reside in my DSB.

Post a whole tank shot if you get a chance.

[zhenya]

Thanks Captain.The tank is an Oceanic 110g with 30g sump,mag-18 for return and four MJ-1200 on wavepro.Everything is in a stand as i have no basement.Let see if I can find a whole tank pic...My other tank is a 75 aga.

[zhenya]

Captain,
That 120 Oceanic is 60x24x24H right?
If so,it should be a very nice tank.I'm sure you'll come up with design that will suit your clams Good luck with it.

[JT]

Originally posted by zhenya
That 120 Oceanic is 60x24x24H right?

A 120G Oceanic is 48x24x24. 60x24x24 would work out to roughly 150G.

Both are great tanks.

- JT

[zhenya]

Thanks JT for heads up!

[Captain Clam]

You can see the little gold maxima near the bottom right side of the BTA.

[Captain Clam]

here's a closer shot

[zhenya]

That is very nice looking bta Captain
Man,this little maxima is amaizing looking with the tentacles of the bta all arround it.I hope it'll be ok always

[Captain Clam]

It made for a cool pic but I have moved the little clam because of lighting concerns. Pretty weird to see him that close with anemone though. I thought for sure I'd find him dead when the anemone moved to that spot. Wasn't easy cutting him loose from that rock either.

And JT's right. The tank I'm looking at is 48"x24"x24". Can't wait!

[slojmn]

Captain, great picture but probably a good move for your clam.

zhenya, so sorry to hear about your loss, that was one sweet Squamosa. That rose BTA is kickin it nicely. It is huge. My rose split at about 7" after 5 months in my tank, September. I have no clue what made mine split but it did. The mama looks really good since the split. I think it is back to the size it was prior to the split. It is growing fast. When yours does split that will be a sweet clone

[zhenya]

Slojmn,thanks!I realy liked that clam and it was a tough loss.It's funy in my other tank my Heteractis cripa is right next to a
Trachyphyllia g. for about a year now and nothing bad has happen to the coral.Not retraction or anything negative that I've seen.It expands to a huge size every day and still growing its sceleton Why that clam died I'll never know but I do suspect my rose bta.