Do you think these clams will make it?

[Ben1]

I just received my order from www.eastcoastclams.com . I got two T. Crocea's. The problem was with the shipper Airborne Express. They were scheduled for delievery yesterday by 10:30 am and didnt arrive untill today at 10am. I couldnt pick them up last night as they couldnt find the package "if we have it at all." After taking yesterday off work and getting the run around all day that was the final word from Airborne. Today when the calms arrived they were triple bagged in a strafoam box filled with strafoam peants.

Both smelled very bad and were in a bag of lightly yellow tinted water. Both had lots of debris on the bottom of the bag, brown stuff and other junk. The larger of the two had no byssus gland and I can see right through the mantle to the opening where the gland was. It appears the inhalent syphon has aslo torn.

The other clam is in better shape being a bit smaller it had a nice byssus gland in good condition. I acclimated them over the last hour and placed them near the bottom of the tank. I plan on running only actinics today and staggering my MH lighting tomorrow.

What do you think? :evil:

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about your problems. Sounds like you got a crappy clam.I would contact east coast clams ASAP and complain.

 

[Ben1]

Rob from east coast clams has been nothing but helpful, we have talked over email and phone through the whole process. I blam it on the shipping, 36 hours in a bag isnt to good for a clam. I think that Airborne should be responsible for the price of the clams and refund all shipping charges.

At this point they dont seem much better, in fact they both have their mantles pulled deep inside and seem to be tearing apart.

 

[Chucker]

I think clkohly is alluding to the fact that one clam was missing the byssal gland. A clam that is properly collected should still have the gland, unless it is large enough that it no longer requires attachment to a substrate. If that is the case, if my memory does not fail me, the clam should still have the gland, but not necessarily produce threads for attachment.

If I'm off-base here, I'd appreciate enlightenment.

 

[Ben1]

I believe this is the case with the T. derasa because of their size, thier weight can hold them on the sand in nature.

T. Crocea should always have this gland, as it helps its boring in nature. Wild T. Croceas are found very shallow there for get pounded by surges and exposed during some tides. SO to combat this they bore into rocks leaving only thier mantle exposed. They should not lose the byssal gland at all. IMO the gland could have fallen apart due to stress during the shipping, or from poor collection. I do feel though that Rob would have seen this and let me know. I am very worried I can see through the clam though, straight through the inhalent syphon through the area where the byssal gland should have been.

The other clam is expelling some of its inner tissue through the inhalent syphon as well. I hope its not a lost cause.

 

[holeinone1972]

Shipping can be a real pain in the arse sometimes. It is unfortuneate that Ben has had a problem, but it will be taken care of. I have already filed a claim with Airborne, but that is on me.

Ben will not lose out on this deal, I stand behind my clams 100 percent. Both clams left my care in great shape, the two days of shipping however did them no justice. Ben, I have sent you email, we will take care of our customers. Ben did nothing wrong and will wind up happy after all his troubles I assure you.

Rob Huss at East Coast Clams!

 

[Ben1]

Unfortunatly both clams have now died. I think this was preety perdictable. In any case its ashame as they would have been beautiful.

On the up side the customer support Rob has givin me has been excellent. Well above what anyone would expect. He has argeed in this case to replace both clams and send out two new ones free of charge, even covoring shipping since it was out of both of our hands. In the last two days Rob has been great returning all me emails and calling on the phone to work it out.

I Know I will be getting more clams there soon. If anyone is looking for clams, exspecialy on the east coast, I highly recommend you look into www.eastcoastclams.com.

 

[Adam1]

Hi all,

I have been to East Coast Clams and have seen all of the clams that Rob had. All of them were healthy and in great shape.

I also know the care that Rob puts into packing and shipping, and I have no doubt that everything within his control was done correctly.

The appearance of the clams that was described is typical of dead or near dead clams. The absence of (or inability to identify) a byssal gland in clams in that condition is no indication of wether it was intact when the clam was healthy.

I have no connection to East Coast Clams except that I am a satisfied customer who had the opportunity to see the facility and clams in person.

HTH

Adam