Electric Flame Scallop

[slakker]

He's kinda mobile, squirts around the tank...

I got him today... hope he lives!



The little blue lines on his lips are actually electrical sparks that ripple back and forth...

[wasupdavey]

Wow very nice =D

[naperenterprise]

Electric sparks? No S@it!
Thats really cool! Will it hurt other animals with the electricity?

Originally Posted by slakker

He's kinda mobile, squirts around the tank...

I got him today... hope he lives!



The little blue lines on his lips are actually electrical sparks that ripple back and forth...

[slakker]

Not as far as I can tell... I'm not 100% sure it's even electricity, maybe photo florescences? A hermit got too close and it got one of it's legs caught for a while before freeing it self, didn't get harmed...

I wonder if the "light" is a hunting mechanism to attract prey in the wild?

This isn't my video, but found it on youtube and this is what it looks like...

YouTube - Electric Flame Scallop

[JWarren]

Before my tanks went down in the hurricanes down here, I had a few in my 55 gal. I would add live brine to the tank and the clams lights would attract the brine. They would get caught up in the tenticles and drug inside the clam.

I would also spot feed them my blender mix as well. The longest I was ever able to keep one alive was about 1 1/2 years.

[lcstorc]

They are very difficult to keep in captivity and are on many lists of animals that should be kept in the ocean. Do some internet searches and find what they are most likely to eat so you can do your best to keep it alive. Most simply starve in aquariums.
Kudos to you John for keeping one that long. That is very impressive.

[slakker]

Originally Posted by JWarren

Before my tanks went down in the hurricanes down here, I had a few in my 55 gal. I would add live brine to the tank and the clams lights would attract the brine. They would get caught up in the tenticles and drug inside the clam.

I would also spot feed them my blender mix as well. The longest I was ever able to keep one alive was about 1 1/2 years.

Cool... was that the only way you fed them? Any other suggestions, I really want to maximize their chances of survival...

[BigAl07]

I had one in my 10g from week #2 and it lived 11 months... was AWESOME to see....

[CMG]

According to my trustee Marine Inverebrates book it says that they need a lot of food to survive and it should be phytoplankton. They like dim light and can be picked on by mobile inverts such as crabs, sars, whelks and some fish may pick a them also. Hope this may help...

[slakker]

Thanks, I feed phyto regularly so I'm hoping that'll help...

[JWarren]

Thanks Lynn, I saw your post.

Slakker,

My blender mix has phyto in it as well as reef plus. Also, clams, shrimp, squid, sea vegies, krill, brine shrimp, whiting, octopus and garlic. Who knows what the clam liked best, maybe it was just the phyto and the reef plus that did the trick. I know they are filter feeders but I never saw one eject a live brine shrimp. They need a protein rich environment. If you are planning on keeping him in a reef only tank, it won't last long.

[slakker]

I have a mixed tank, I feed a mix a pellets, flakes and frozen food to the fishes with suppliments of lipovit and immuvit. And a 1/2 squirt of phyto concentrate into the water. I hope that should have enough dissolved organics in the water for it to filter feed. I'm also trying to squirt the frozen food upstream of current to see if it's tentacles will catch a stray shrimp.

I've never tried making my own mix yet. Don't know much about it actually... is it worth while?

[JWarren]

Saves me a bundle of money.

I use aqua star mixed seafood. 3.99
Whiting fillet 4.99
Some dried krill 2.00
Two little fishes sea vegies (couple sheets) 1.50?
half a bottle (small) reef plus 2.50
half bottle Phyto 2.50
two tbs. garlic liquid - Seachem .15?

About $18.00. I get about 12 to 14 sandwich size zip lock bags from this mix. Lasts a long time!

The mixed seafood and whiting fillet are in the grocery's seafood freezer. I thaw it to where it is still slightly frozen. Thaw it out too much and you will have soup very fast! Keeping it a little frozen, gets it to the chunks sizes you want. Do the dry stuff first - sea vegies and krill.

I use a food processor for fish food and a blender for reef food. Your clam may like a fine blended mix, where fish like larger chunks. You just gotta use a little common sense and watch what is being eaten and what is not.

My fish must like it, they run to me when they see the turkey baster. My tank never looked so good since I started doing my own mix. I try to put a little something for everyone in it.