Anyone have T. squamosa? Need placement suggestions

[Delphinus]

Does anyone have any placement suggestions for a 1" T. squamosa? I've had mine for about a couple of weeks now and it has made NO effort to attach to any rock (it did have a 1/2" rock attached to it when it came out of the box, but it promptly let go of that within 12-24 hours of being put in my tank. :rolleyes: )

It is soooo aggravating finding this dumb clam upside down every day. I am tempted to glue it to something (I know not to do this.) I have tried placing it on a flat rock, on a rough rock, on an angled rock, on a level rock ... etc. I place coral rubble around it to stabilize it (otherwise it just gets knocked on its side by the current), but either it is climbing over the rubble, the snails are clumsily pushing it out of the rubble, or the current is lifting it over the rubble.

Very frustrating.

It is destined to live in the sand?

[ 21 July 2002, 15:26: Message edited by: delphinus ]

[AJ_77]

Just happen to have Jayson's copy of Giant Clams handy. ;)
T. squamosa lives on the reefs down to depths of 18 meters, on living or dead stony corals, commonly in community with stony corals of the genus Acropora. To settle, the clam attaches to the substrate with its weak byssal filaments. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">HTH Tony, perhaps you have its destiny pegged.

alan :D

[ 21 July 2002, 23:04: Message edited by: AJ_77 ]

[Delphinus]

See that's where my confusion comes in. Knop is saying "living or dead corals" which to me means "rock" or "hard" subtrate, and to me that suggests that leaving it in the sand is the wrong thing for the clam.

sigh ... I dunno ... stupid clams... would be so much easier if I just awasn't addicted to the idea of having clams in my tanks. I just can't keep 'em happy for some reason ... :(

[Troy F]

They will go where they want despite your wishes. It will be a combo of substrate, lighting and current. I'd suggest letting it find its spot and then placing it there on a bowl shaped rock.

HTH

[Delphinus]

Hi Troy, yeah, but the problem with letting it find its own spot is that ... well two things actually ... 1) I don't have the luxury of time as I'm vamoosed out your way for my annual BC pilgrimage (er .. camping vacation ;) ) starting in 5 days. 2) basically when I find it has moved, I am finding it upside down periodically and it seems unable to right itself so I have to reach in and right it myself (maybe I haven't waited long enough. But say if it's left upside-down for as long as two weeks ... I'm pretty sure I will be coming home to find to nice clean but empty shells). That's why I'm fishing for help.

I found the bowl-shaped rock has worked once for me, one of my T. max's likes it. The other one hated the same idea, so that one sits instead on rubble, with a pile of rubble around it to stabilize it. I have no idea if it's attached to the rock it's on yet, and I fear trying to find out, if I move any of the stabilizing rocks and it flops over then I'm back to square one. I am hoping to avoid this same ordeal with this new squamosa.

To be fair, I don't know if it's always moving on its own, or if it's just in a spot with too much current, or if it's the snails that are knocking it over (my ONE turbo snail, a 2.5" monster sized snail, has an amazing ability to sniff out the location of a loose clam, and go over there and start cleaning the rocks all around it.. meanwhile it's HUGE shell bumps into anything not glued down, knocking things over... including said clam) For this reason I'd be happier with the "bowl shaped rock" over the sand, because it will never be able to forever withstand that kind of fumbling bumping if it's in sand with nothing to stabilize it... :(

Oh well. I've got a few days yet to figure this out ...