Diver's Den Tour- Invertebrate Section

To continue the previous thread, this post will feature the invertebrate section of the facility.
First I want to show you the massive protein skimmer and reactor combo at this LiveAquaria, there are several of them:

This protein skimmer is taller than me... enough said.

Asked my wife to model for scale, humongous carpet anemones

More carpet anemones

Each of the anemones in this section, including carpet and a bunch of bubble tip are all hosting a pair of clownfish. it's really cool to see they make them all happy, even though as a retailer it's completely unnecessary to pair clownfish with anemone since one or the other would be sold soon anyways. But they did what they can to make each feel happy.

A bundle of long tentacle anemone

 a cluster of derasa clams (not yet offered on diver's den, they were exclusive for the tour), and a bunch of cultured maxima clam. very sweet deals! I managed to snatch two of these handsome derasa clams

Lighting may be one of the biggest questions any hobbyist buying from LiveAquaria wishes to ask. In the photo below you will see a broader view of the facility with lights running on a track. The lights run in a lateral movement so that it can cover all angles of the photosynthetic animals beneath rather than creating a "hot spot". When I toured this place a few years ago all lights were 400W 20K Metal Halide. Today this facility has a mix of high end LED (such as AI hydra + a few other varieties). All holding raceway are no more than 12" deep. All the animals look healthy and for clams I can observe significant growth indicating excellent health condition.

The livestock raceway

Here is a picture of the holding section for shrimp, small crabs (such as acropora crabs) and small shrimp (pistol shrimp or squat lobster, which by the way are size of a pinky nail!) They are held in individual transparent containers approx. the size of a film box (if you are born after the mid 90's you might not know what that is lol).

squat lobster, I can't believe how tiny they actually are compare to the online photos.

maxima clams in the diver's den section

And lastly, the diver's den clam section. I must say, almost all the clams in this section appears much larger than what is seems on the photo (contrary to the squat lobster), and honestly, the photos don't do justice on how beautiful they are. One of these clams I purchased looks like a mustard, brown color online but turns out to be a shiny gold in person! All of them are kept under 400W metal halide, 20K bulbs hence the very blue photo here. And one thing they offer that no one else do is live arrival ad 14 day guarantee.
Here is a couple videos:

20150101 New Era mini marine grazer

Happy New Year!
Seeing that the new year can mark a new ear of something for someone, I thought it would be fitting to introduce a new food I've been studying after but have not had a chance to try until recently.
I was first told of this food by a very nice and helpful girl working at a Milwaukee's local fish store "Best Fish". At the time I suspected my gold spotted rabbitfish had an appetite for my derasa clam ( I never caught it in the act though, but it was the ONLY suspect at the time). So I expressed my concern to her and see if she has any suggestions. She then recommended this mini grazer for the fish to slowly chew down over time so it will have no time to take after other items. I was given a couple rings of them to try out but did not have the mount to prop them properly. So that was a fail.

I then ran into a nice British gentleman at the Chicago Aquatic experience who was the rep at New Era's booth. He explained the food and the feeding process along with aid of video. So I was then convinced to give it a shot. It's been a few days now in my tanks and I am convinced it's a great food for all algae grazers like tangs and rabbitfish, even angels!
In the video you can see my swallowtail angelfish going after the feeder. Before I introduced the feeder this angel actually was struggling to eat, and I believe the angel finds the idea of a stationary food source very enticing and comforting. I now highly recommend it.
The food however, is not very cheap- a 290 gram can comes with two sucker mounts was sold for $30 USD at the LFS.

20141229 Clams in my 180!

With my wife's lovely gift of waterproof case, I was able to snap some underwater shots without the disruption of water reflection.

My 10" Stardust Squamosa Clam

My 8" Green squamosal clam

8" Derasa Clam

20141006 Derasa Clam nipped!

For the last two months I have been keeping my Derasa clam separately in a 75G RR that I have set up to allow the two squamosa clams more room to stretch. But two weeks ago I discovered that the Derasa clam have not been opening. So I decided to take it out of the 75 and place it back into my 92.

It turns out- someone has been nipping this clam! See the hole in the middle of the clam mantle (the white circle) My suspicion is the orange or gold spotted rabbitfish. Because not only the clam, the rabbitfish has also nipped on my leather corals.

20140915 Desjardini Tang acclimation

In my previous post I have described the five day process of trying to get the desjardini tang to eat and become used to human presence. One of my strategy was to reward them with food for greeting me. After a weekend of heavy feeding (Started Friday Night), the tang has become very good sport in swimming in the open in my presence.

I am sure too though, that all the overfeeding had escalated the nitrate level! well, I guess that's what the big derasa is there for! But at the end of the weekend I am very pleased to announce this desjardini tang is finally "house broken". Currently it swims alongside with three other larger fish in the tank to form the "dominant four"- The Desjardini tang, Chevron tang, Orange spotted rabbitfish, and flame back angel. and it's been fed heavily on flake food, frozen food (homemade blend), and nori sheets.

Conclusion- Based on my recent experience with the acquisition of Foxface Rabbitfish (in the other tank), the Chevron tang, and this desjardini tang, the average time for any new fish to become comfortable and feel blended in is about a week. The orange spotted rabbitfish though, gave me quite a scare, it was in the tank for over a month showing no sign of acclimation (while eating heavily). I must say most of the fish in this condition would have died within a month, but looks like choosing some open swimming tank mate was the key to open up the rabbit fish's personality.

Tank update

Update photo from the top. All the fish got excited thinking I was going to feed- not quite, just taking a picture!

2014-05-16 Species Spotlight- Derasa

This is the third Derasa clam I've kept in my personal aquarium.
My first clam came as a birthday present, a 5" derasa, had the tiger spotted marking.
Second one is similar to the one below, also a 5" derasa, with a slightly lighter color. That one unfortunately died due to disease introduced by another clam.

The current clam I have is between 8-9" and has beautiful stripes down its mantle.

In many people's opinion, Derasa clam is one of the hardiest, and easiest clams to keep.

In my opinion, squamosa is the hardiest and easiest, but Derasa clam is a close second.

Like all clams, it does require full reef water condition with extra care in calcium level for proper growth. It will also need slightly nutrient rich water (i.e. plenty of fish waste) to thrive as it absorbs phosphorous from water to build its body parts. Hence it's nearly impossible to keep clams in an aquarium with no fish in it.

Although Derasa doesn't require as much intensity in light as Maxima and Crocea do, it still need a decent light source. I've been able to keep it healthy under power compact at at least 5W/gallon with slower growth. Currently I have it under my AI sol blue LED fixture at around 70% at peak time and it's growing rapidly. Many others keep it under Metal Halide, which is more than enough light but can really suck up your energy bill.

Unlike Maxima and Crocea, you should place this clam on a sand bed. And give it plenty of room to "rotate" as it has a mind of its own in choosing what direction it wants to face. Lastly, keep the tank free of potential clam eaters. I had a flame angel who would nip at my Squamosa before. That flame took its own life one day, and my flame angel II has been very well fed and has not touched the clam.

One other conscience complier is that most of these clams you find in the trade are now aquacultures with minimum to none impact to the reef. And the bonus of aquacultured livestock is they are far hardier than those wild collected.

2014-05-05 Keeping Clams under LED

I just curious to see what other reefers are saying about the LED light's effect on keeping giant clams. So I did some research:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-588034.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/clams/clams-under-leds-growth-130747-7.html#.U2Rq7l5k4y4

I've went through a few different forums but found that these two have the most constructive answers I was looking for. 

In general, the answer is yes. But it depends on how the light was made (home made, cheaply made in China, etc), the total wattage of the light, distance of light from water, distance of clam from water surface etc.

I can definitely attest that clams not only survive, but thrive under LED.

I have had my aqua illumination sol blue for more than 6 months now. And I've kept my three big clams in there for almost 5 months. I programmed my light to mimic the natural sunlight intensity bell curve throughout the day with the highest being 3pm at about 85% and down to 15% at beginning and ending of the day. The largest of the three squamosa grew 2", from 7" to 9", the derasa is a bit more sensitive to fish swim by so grew a bit slower, about 1.5", from 6 to 7.5". The smallest of the three is also a squamosa, grew from 5" to about 7" now. My calcium level was around 500 before these clams were in. And now I am struggling to keep it over 350 when they grow this fast! My tank is 92 Corner and they are all sitting at the very bottom. So yes, you can definitely keep clams happy with LED lights.

Death of a clam

I have not posted for a while because I am really depressed for what you can read in the title. My beautiful five inch Tahitian Maxima clam died four days after I performed the fresh water dip. The clam first showed signs of revival the first day, and then things just went downhill really fast after the second day.

I soaked what was left of the clam in chlorine to bleach out all and any microscopic lives on the shell to investigate the cause of death. As you can see, there is significant boring algae infection in the core of this clam.

In this photo, you can see the little holes in the bottom of the clam shell, caused by boring sponge while the clam was young, the boring sponge left holes for boring algae to invade and take over. The shell infected is significantly thinner than the other half.

The Inside view of the infected area. It looks like death is only a matter of time for this clam.

So the lesson learned here is that before you purchase any clam in the future, You MUST lift up the clam and observe the entire surface of the clam's shell (including the bottom) to detect any infections that may be otherwise be hidden while you view it from the top and its side. To me, that was a $230 lesson. Actually, make that $430 as three days following the Maxima's death, the raised nitrate level in the water also killed my 6" Derasa clam. 

ORA Derasa Clam from Liveaquaria

Living in Wisconsin, I have known Drs. Foster and Smith's company for a long time. I attended their first ever frag swap in their homebase in Rhinelander, WI and toured the warehouse facility as well as their aquaculture lab. I have placed dry shipment orders such as marine salt, filter replacements, gravel, food, etc from them; but I have never ordered any livestock from LiveAquaria.com as I am a bit weary of the capture, quarantene, and the shipping process.

But that doesn't mean I don't check out their livestock availability in a weekly basis! This time I saw an ORA Derasa Clam available in the Diver's Den. The photo looks amazing! I conducted some research. Asked a few reefkeeping friends about their personal experience with LiveAquaria and decided to gamble on this clam.

ORA 6" Derasa Clam

Since I work a 9-5 job my only option is Saturday delivery. The Clam itself costs $150, plut $35 shipping (free shipping if your order is $225 or more), and an additional $15 for Saturday delivery plus state tax if applicable. So basically I paid over $210ish. This is the box it came with 20X18X14, quite large for what I have ordered- only one giant clam.

When I opened the box, I was really impressed with the packing process. The delivered date was one of the coldest days this winter in Wisconsin (-8F outside)! But the box is filled with peanut and a newspaper wrap. Within the newspaper wrap were two heatpacks that you see NFL QBs use to warm up their hands in the winter. I must mention, even two days after I have opened the box, those heat packs are still emitting heat! leading me to believe that they have really put some thoughts into this delivery process that even if the shipment was delayed there is still a good chance of survival for the enclosed animal.

I am acclimating the clam. As you can see, there are several layers of plastic bags (total of seven!) to keep the clam tightly sealed since some clam shells can be razor sharp and puncture the bag. This is extra security to ensure that the water remains with the clam upon delivery. When I was opening the bags, I felt like a surgeon performing a C-section, cutting through layers and layers of bags to retrieve the baby!

The Derasa was labeled 6" in the Diver's Den description. I must say you do get EXACTLY  what they posted as this gorgeous clam was exactly what I was looking forward to. The only thing is I think the clam actually measure up more like 7 inches than 6 inches. Here is the clam being shy.

Clam's mantle fully expanded after a while of acclimation. I am 100% impressed and would order with Liveaquaria again anytime!

ORA 6" Derasa Clam