Crocea died. Need help figuring why

no more like a week or two... I would guess it has something to do with the threads being ripped of torn

 

In general, clams take a while to die, it could have been dying the entire time you had it.

 

They do not feed on bacteria, they need a nitrogen source and smaller clams require phytoplankton (marine algae) to supplement them. The clams have evolved to feed just on phyto.

Heres an extract from Randy Holmes article on bivalves and feeding byvalves;
"All bivalves, including those containing photosynthetic algae, need a lot of energy and materials to stay alive. Clams appear to be passive animals, but actually they are burning food at a pretty good rate. Pumping water, even by ciliary action, is expensive and they pump ALOT of water. Consequently, they need a lot of energy to survive.

Natural selection acts to minimize unnecessary costs. If clams from Tridacna or Hippopus species didn’t need to feed, the feeding structures would be eliminated. There are a number of clams that live totally on the byproducts of symbiotic bacteria living on their gills. These clams are totally gutless. The fact that every Tridacna and Hippopus individual has a good and functional feeding apparatus ABSOLUTELY PROVES that they need to feed.

Indeed this is the case, researchers have found (Klumpp and Lucas, 1994; Griffiths & Klumpp, 1996) that small Tridacna, those about 10 cm (4 inches) in shell length or shorter, simply do not have enough mantle volume to hold sufficient zooxanthellae to support the metabolic needs of the clam. Only as the clams grow larger can the zooxanthellae produce enough respiratory energy, or sugars, to keep the clams alive.

Even after this period in their lives, these clams are dependant upon captured phytoplankton for much of their needs. All animal tissue is mostly protein, and to make proteins the animals must, absolutely must, have a nitrogen source. Researchers (Ambariyanto & Hoegh-Guldberg. 1999) have found the clams depend upon their feeding to provide a nitrogen source for their own protein metabolism. Although the zooxanthellae can help with protein synthesis, the clams need a nitrogen source and that source is their phytoplankton food."

Source; DT'S PLANKTON FARM

 

Sure they do. They also feed on zooplankton.

All tridacnid clams regardless of size need a nitrogen and phosphorus source. This can come from many places. They can extract this from animal or plant matter and the can also extract the nutrients right from the water.

Not true. They can and will filter out all types of particulate matter. Phytoplankton(plant matter) Zooplankton(Animal matter), Bacteria, Detritus. However they dont need to use their gills to filter anything from the water to gain the nutrients they need to live and grow. They have microvillous epidermal cells in their mantles that can draw raw nutrients and even particulate matter into the clam to be used by the zooxanthellae for photosynthesis.

Whos Randy Holmes? Do you mean Randy Holmes-Farley? He a chemist and didnt write the article you quoted. The article you quoted was written by Dr Ron Shimek. He was also paid by DT's to write this article and there are so many inaccuracies in it its not even funny.

Heres something I wrote specifically to try and clear up the mess created from the above article.

Feeding clams - Reef-Geeks

 

Major reason for clams death is people moving them yours had attached the basal threads to the rock and when you pulled them it died , Thats the 2nd reason the clams should be mounted to a flat rock or old clam shell the first reason is to allow them some protection from the snails and other pest attacks from below . After clams reach a large enough size that thread will fall away and not be needed to hold them in place .

As for what a clam eats it varies from stage to stage in their growth . But for those who like to move clams ! And I would never recommend they be moved once set in a spot But you need to be very very careful and use a hobby knife of scalpel and cut the attachment thread mussel one by one . My wife had on set in a tank for several yrs it took me near to a hr to remove it from the rock it was attached to. It did just fine .

But the simple way to avoid this is pick the spot find a flat rock or 1/2 shell and set the new clam in place and leave it alone..