Why do Tridacna Clams get such a bad rap? Did we find the Answer? Polo Reef Explores Clam Solutions!

Summary

In this engaging video by Polo Reef, Andrew Sandler dives into the intricate world of Tridacna clam care. The video highlights the challenges faced in creating optimal conditions for these clams, given their sensitivity to factors like lighting, pressure, and bacterial infections. Andrew and his team navigate trials with light blends, gas pressures, and quarantine practices, alongside their dedication to understanding the best environmental and medicinal protocols. Their journey is enriched with tests and analyses, demonstrating their commitment to improving survival rates for clams and contributing valuable knowledge to hobbyists and professionals alike.

Highlights

• Andrew from Polo Reef is tackling the challenge of keeping Tridacna clams healthy. 🌊
• Lighting and gas pressure adjustments are key to creating an ideal environment. ✨
• Testing involves antibiotics to ward off bacterial threats in clams. 🦠
• Exciting experiments are underway to find the perfect clam care routine. 🚀
• Andrew's commitment to clam care serves as a resource for marine hobbyists. 📚

Key Takeaways

• Caring for Tridacna clams is no easy feat, but Andrew and his team are on it! 🏊‍♂️
• Perfect lighting and pressure conditions are crucial for happy clams. 💡💧
• Antibiotics and medicinal dips are being explored to combat bacteria. 💊
• Science is all about trial and error, and Andrew is dedicated to finding the best solutions. 🔬
• Innovative feeding strategies can help keep these clams healthy and thriving. 🦐

Overview

Andrew from Polo Reef takes us on an adventure into the world of Tridacna clams. These beautiful creatures are notoriously difficult to care for, yet Andrew sees this as an opportunity rather than a challenge. He is determined to establish the perfect protocols involving lighting, water conditions, and medicinal treatments, all while providing an educational resource for other enthusiasts.

In the lab, Andrew and his team have set up two distinct environments to test how different variables like light spectrum and gas pressure affect clam health. They're even experimenting with innovative quarantine processes to better integrate wild clams into their systems. The trials are rigorous, and while some clams respond well, others present new challenges, pushing the team to keep tweaking their methods.

With Alex, the vet, joining in, bacterial analysis becomes a focal point. Swabs and baths reveal insights into pathogenic threats, leading to informed decisions about treatments. The work is dynamic and demands constant adaptation, yet through collaboration and experimentation, they're unlocking new knowledge that promises brighter futures for clams and reef aficionados worldwide.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to clams at Polar Reef In this chapter, Andrew from Polar Reef introduces the topic of clams. He shares insights on clams that have recently arrived at Polar Reef, discusses protocols for their care, and highlights ongoing efforts to improve conditions for hobbyists.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Challenges of keeping clams alive The chapter titled 'Challenges of keeping clams alive' discusses the difficulties involved in maintaining clams at Polar Reef. The process of identifying the precise environmental elements required for their survival is particularly challenging. Andrew, known for his determination, uses these challenges as opportunities to educate and further the mission of Polar Reef. He is dedicated to developing specific protocols and procedures to ensure the clams' survival.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Setting up testing protocols and tanks The chapter discusses efforts to set up testing protocols for clam tanks, specifically a 200-gallon tank, due to issues with keeping clams alive. This includes experiments with lighting, using two bulbs: a 10K and a radium 20K, to assess the impact on clam health.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Adjustments in lighting and tank environment The chapter discusses the adjustments made in lighting and tank environment for aquatic life. Initial lighting setups with 20k lights seemed to cause bleach marks on clams, which thrive in shallower environments with broad daylight lighting. The focus is on achieving the right mix of lighting intensity and ensuring a proper quarantine process. Two tanks are being monitored: an established shallow tank and another with different settings.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Quarantine and bacterial testing procedures The chapter discusses quarantine and bacterial testing procedures for clams housed in two separate tanks: a 17,000-gallon system tank and a 200-gallon lab tank. The aim is to run tests and compare the results effectively, which has proven to be challenging and thus far unsuccessful. The team faces difficulties, specifically with adjusting the lighting to replicate the conditions in the larger system, requiring numerous attempts to get it right.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Diet and feeding strategies for clams The chapter discusses the environmental setup for clams focusing on replicating the same light and PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) levels in both a general tank and a specific clam tank. The target PAR level is around 300, which is considered ideal for clams. A notable difference is the Total Gas Pressure (TGP), which is higher in the clam tank compared to the main system. This adjustment is part of routine maintenance to optimize clam health.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Moving clams and introducing new ones The chapter discusses the process of managing a tank, including using a skimmer and adjusting the total gas pressure (tgp) to 101 compared to 103 in another tank. A zero sulfur water change was performed to reduce sulfate levels, eliminating it as a variable. The chapter also explores the adjustments in lighting and gas pressure, and the challenges of quarantining wild clams to ensure they can be introduced into tanks without negatively impacting existing clams.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Results from bacterial swabs and next steps The chapter discusses the process of dipping and bathing in a setup to observe its effect on colors. It involves controlling the duration and number of baths. The speaker also considers using a clam tank due to common issues with clams, mentioning that people mule clams for reliability, although wild clams are considered more beautiful.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Conclusions and future testing directions The chapter discusses potential future directions for testing and methodologies to determine the causes of certain conditions, such as whether they are bacterial or related to lighting or pressure conditions. Emphasis is given to quarantine and dipping processes to ensure system stability, similar to procedures observed in livestock handling. Polar Reef is experimenting with new methods, such as using crushed medication in pill form for clams, to identify effective treatments. The results of these ongoing tests are yet to be finalized.

Why do Tridacna Clams get such a bad rap? Did we find the Answer? Polo Reef Explores Clam Solutions! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hi guys Andrew from Polar Reef here today we're going to talk all about clams we'll show you some clams that just arrived and some protocols we'll show you their care and what we're doing to try to improve for all you Hobbies [Music] [Applause] [Music]
• 00:30 - 01:00 clams have always been a part of polar Reef but taking care of them is incredibly difficult and finding exactly the elements they want to live in it can be very challenging as of now you might know Andrew and you know he never lets something difficult hold him down instead he looks at it as an opportunity to do what polar Reef does best and that's to educate today Andrew continues his mission to create protocols and procedures to keep in clams you may have
• 01:00 - 01:30 seen our articles on uh clams for rent you may know that we've had some issues keeping a lot of our clams alive in our clam tank well we're trying to figure out exactly why we're trying to establish some protocols on wild clams in this tank here which is the 200 galon tank we have two hay bulbs running one is a 10K and one is the radium 20K and
• 01:30 - 02:00 they're reasonably blending well in fact when we had both 20ks up it felt like there was some bleach marks on on one of the clams and you know that clams live shallower and like that broad daylight type of light the basic elements he's looking at are lighting mixtures intensity and the quarantine process he has two tanks set up one is the established shallow tank
• 02:00 - 02:30 in the back where the clams are already living this tank is attached to the 17,000g system so he has to be really careful on what goes in here the other tank is the 200g tank in the lab where new clams are first placed with two clam tanks Andrew has the ability to run test and compare the results it sounds simple but clams being clams it has proven more difficult than expected and after a few attempts it's been unsuccessful so today the testing continues starting with the lights to match the lighting to the system in the back it took the team a lot of tries to get this right so what
• 02:30 - 03:00 we're doing here for now is creating the same exact light and the same par in this tank and the clam tank and the par is roughly the same at around 300 three three fraction which is pretty good for a clam the only real differences now is the tpg total gas pressure is going to be higher in the clamp tank CU it's higher in the main system this is just the Reg reg ordinary
• 03:00 - 03:30 tank with a skimmer I think the the tgp runs at 101 versus 103 in the other tank and we just did a zero sulfur water change to bring the sulfates down so now that's no longer a variable we're playing with lights I'm playing with gas pressure I'm trying to figure out also how to quarantine wild clams so we can have these wild clams in our tanks and not knock down clams one at a time like
• 03:30 - 04:00 dominoes so part one of the setup is now done and uh we'll move on to part two and that will be the dip and the bath and see what it what it does to the colors how long we can leave it in the bath how many baths it might need from there I may move it into the clam tank clams are known to have issues that's why people start muling clams as opposed to getting them from the wild the wild clams are much more beautiful uh if we
• 04:00 - 04:30 could figure out whether it's bacterial or our lights or our pressure that would be a big thing in the hobby as with any livestock at polar Reef strict quarantine and dipping processes ensure stability within all of the systems the same goes with clams in their baths one method polar reef is currently testing is taking medication in a pill form crushing it and placing it in a tub with the clams the purpose of this test is to determine what medications work best it's still work in progress I wouldn't I
• 04:30 - 05:00 wouldn't even wait the whole hour though on the on the on the chlorop fenicle it's been antibiotic you know a few times maybe 30 minutes 20 minutes on the CP outside of giving the clams a bath Alex the vet shows up to perform a swab and send the results to the lab we're going to take some clams we're going to swab them we're going to have an antimicrobial bath and then we're going to swab them again to see how the bacterial populations change as with the same processes we do with the fish and the coral again as we've been having
• 05:00 - 05:30 problems here the clams haven't been doing great in the clam tank is that because of bacterial infection viral infection environment and that's what we're trying to slowly rule out you know Andrew's been changing the lights a little bit to see if that's making them you know a little more comfortable um while I'm working on the bacterial components making sure that there's no infections going on right so now I'm going to take a bacterial swab yeah these are completely the tip of the swab is completely sterile I'm just going to get some of the mantle here before he
• 05:30 - 06:00 closes and we're going to get some of the foot again we'll see bacteria that we know were pathogenic in other organisms and we can use and extrapolate that knowledge to say hey maybe these bacteria are pathogenic in the clams so it takes a couple weeks to fully get the results of these bacterial swabs so we're going to send these bacterial culturs to the lab once we get those results we'll share them with you
• 06:00 - 06:30 guys during some of the tests Patty arrives and Andrew briefs her on some of the changes that he made you see we actually blended it you can't tell it's almost two different bulbs and that's because we changed the backs to the the all Blues I like the color me too that yellow yeah that's the 10K but two 10ks in this tank they're fried because of the of the par yeah so I have a radium a 10K
• 06:30 - 07:00 they're mixing we're doing everything we're playing but we're trying to check eliminate eliminate variables Prett much now whether we know I mean we could turn ozone off uh and we can always build a degassing chamber for tgp too but let's see let's see what happens all livestock needs to eat polar Reef always uses a combination of foods to keep their livestock happy three different species isoc crisis Tetra calamus and Roto bonus
• 07:00 - 07:30 uh sometimes we have Blends but we're out of the Blends uh I prefer to to do this anyway cut the system off from the main display so the phto stays in here a little bit no real formula here shaking head smaller clams really need Pho the larger clams don't but combination of good fish poop and some phto is great the multi strings a lot of them go bad after a while
• 07:30 - 08:00 only get they say it has 10 or 15 species and if you look it on the microscope there only a few uh they they'll die after 20 some more days in the refrigerator so the best way is individual if you're going to buy a strain it's got to be come early come refrigerated come fresh and use it quickly um and then frankly what I do with the balance of this stuff is just throw it into uh the LPS tanks and this
• 08:00 - 08:30 also flows through the 17,000 a lot of fish though uh will pick on clams uh even something as simple as a yellow tank so it's best if you're going to have a clam tank to get fish that I call floaters chromis Cardinals things that are going to just be chilling near the surface and not be uh even even pecking on the algae of the shell
• 08:30 - 09:00 the original batch of clams that were in the 200 gallons seem to be doing well with the changes of the lighting and the baths so Andrew decides to move them to the established shallow tank in the back they're all in the clown tank right now and um they've all received uh a whole tank bath and most of them have gotten three bats the only difference is now that that Tank's going to be a little brighter it's going to be a little wider but so far are so good this is going to
• 09:00 - 09:30 free up the 200 gallon in the lab for you guest it more clamps with the fresh batch coming in Andrew uses his newly tested methods to see how they react put someone the middle middle raw too the middle The Middle's going to going to have very similar Spectrum they're already out these clams huh yeah that's going to be difficult I'm to slant down I think I'd rather if you're going to put it up high like that I'd rather put it up high on the 250 water right there perfect
• 09:30 - 10:00 when will they open up they're already stared one of them is fully open already they'll be they'll be out in an hour once the new clams are in the tank the team is surprised and thrilled to see them opening up so quickly this means that they're happy close up by saying with medication dips and baths uh actually Julian sprung in his book recommended chlorophenol I want to give a shout out to him there are also parasitic things that we're using uh cp4
• 10:00 - 10:30 we'll figure this out uh the number of baths the duration and lighting what we keep experimenting with lighting and Par and going places like Star Trek where no man has gone before Andrew we've got some results swabs yes swabs oh let's let's let's sit down tell me all about it the results from the clam swabs came back early Alex the vet decided to share them with Andrew so they head into the living
• 10:30 - 11:00 room to debrief and discuss next steps and the clam care procedures the results they're pretty interesting all right Alex all right give me The Good the Bad and the Ugly so in terms of the bacterial populations that we're seeing pre and post bath we have some rudimentary findings at least giving us a direction and you know how we potentially can proceed forward on every single clam that we swabbed pre bath we were seeing two different species of
• 11:00 - 11:30 and then every which one is the real nasty one so the Angelicus is that's actually the exact same species that we cultured and treated in the tile fish but we can see that the known pathogens and the known vibrio are being eradicated from that bath procedure how much chlorophenol concentration would be using one pill per five gallons or something like that how would you compare that concentration
• 11:30 - 12:00 to the Cana concentration which we're using which was the concentration for regular fish I want to lean more towards using the Cana concentration and canamy in the future because one every single bacteria that we have here is susceptible to canamy two it's bacterial cidal meaning that it kills the bacteria whereas corn fanol is bacterio static it means it just stops bacterial replication so if we're able to kill the bacteria rather than roll rely on the clam's own immune system I'd rather go
• 12:00 - 12:30 down that road so now I think the next most important step is to start determining if this Proteus bacteria is pathogenic in this instance just because it's here doesn't mean that it's final nail in the coffin that's killing the clams again when we were doing you know the neck crops use with the clams we were finding Dino flatulates within them which are extremely toxic that's another issue the dinos again moving forward I'd like to look more into the canamy just because of how susceptible everything was and its bacterial cyal and that's
• 12:30 - 13:00 why I think it's a better choice I'd like to maybe possibly do you know swab before baths and then you know four five six seven baths later swab again all right well we have 20 new clams on their way here if we have that many it might be worth breaking them up into four groups everyone swabbed when they first come in four of them are swabbed after the first bath four of them are swapped after the third bath four of them are swapped after the fifth bath four of them are swapped after the 10th bath and we have four different sets of we go okay we can see how these
• 13:00 - 13:30 bacterial populations are changing each time let's set that up when they come okay and in the meantime the dinos we've scrubbed we put a UV sterilizer on there we've moved some of the clams into some other tanks without dinos yep so we're sort of spreading our wings a little bit and diversifying here yeah absolutely so Alex I really appreciate this and uh this is great findings for all of you at home uh watching this video you can
• 13:30 - 14:00 clearly see this is the way science is made you you you don't know everything and you try different dosages and different treatments and different combinations clearly we're learning here still learning with a lot of other variables such as dinos and when we figure this all out we are going to get back to happy clamming I never quit this is what I live for I take another swing so
• 14:00 - 14:30 [Music] i r [Music]