caseyholland

I was just given a new clam, the place where it fits best is near my xenia colonies. My xenias have attacked my acrophoras before and i was wondering if they will try to hurt a clam

Matt

All i can say is and alot of success is achieved through trial and error and i believe even the best saltwater aqaurists have made mistakes that they have know learned from and thus increased success and knowledge of the saltwater aqaurium.

Hope this helps,

Matt

Ivyfer

It's funny that you asked this question, I was reading about coral and compatibility and came across this earlier today.

"It seems that shortly after adding a colony of Xenia to his 150-gallon display tank, he found that his prefilter began clogging at a greater rate than normal. After many weeks of carefully removing selected pieces of coral and then returning them to the tank, he discovered that if he removed either the new Xenia colony or his Tridacna derasa clam, the clogging stopped. Apparently, the clam would produce huge amounts of mucus in response to the presence of the Xenia in the aquarium, which would clog the prefilter material. The Xenia must have been producing a chemical that the clam found objectionable.

I got the excerpt from this site: http://reefkeepingfever.com/article1.htm

sirdarksol

I don't care if it was luck that you saw that article just before reading this question, that's awesome, Ivyfer! Rep point for such a perfectly relevant article (and for posting your source).

It may be that some clams that naturally live in areas that xenia live in have some way of detecting the presence of xenia (likely a chemical the xenia produce), and produce extra mucous to protect themselves, possibly from being colonized by the xenia (which seems to spread pretty rapidly). Depending on the type of clam, being overshadowed by xenia would starve it.

Ivyfer

Thanks for the rep point, sirdarksol! It feels nice be able to answer a question instead of always asking them