Dissapointed in cquarium clam order -- HIT or MISS

[vee]

Hi Everyone

I placed an order with cquarium yesterday for arrival today for 4 of their crocea clams. They looked really cool on their hit or miss website. Once I received them, not only are they smaller than what the describe, the look and color of these clams have been quite different from the pictures on their website. I wanted to get a second(third, foruth...) opinon on whether I have cause to be disappointed. Here are the pictures I took with the digital camera compared with what they posted.

Here's the first clam taken by my digital camera. (the bigger one on the bottom left)

Compared with what they posted on their site

Second clam from my camera (the greenish guy)

their site

Third clam from my camera ( the one with the gold mantle in the center)

their site:

Fourth clam from my camera (green guy)

their site

I want to see what you all think. Thanks a lot

Victor[/img]

 

[vee]

I forgot to mention that the hit or miss website also textually describes the color of these clams

Clam 1 was described as
Ultra Multi Color Crocea
Too me, its a very drab color and most people classify as 1st grade ( on my experience with clams)

Clam 2 was described as
Ultra electric Crocea
There's nothing electric about it. I've seen other stores, LFS and online that sell electric green crocea and to my eye looks not close to an "electric"

Clam3 was described as
Peach/Orange Multi color Ultra Crocea
To the naked eye (not the camera) its got no peach at all and the mantle is actually a drab yellow/gold.

Clam4 was this
Ultra Electric Crocea
This clam i'm actually pretty certain is not the same one I got.

Victor

I'll post pictures of the clams next to a ruler when I get home cuz size is also an issue that I'm wary of.

 

[Anonymous]

I looked on cquarium's website and was unable to find out what types of lights they run, but it looks like to me that you don't have as much blue in your lights as they do, which would explain the differences in color.

I run LOTS of actinic on my tanks because I think the blue spectum really brings out the prettyness in my stuff. I know it sure does on my clam.

 

[vee]

Yea...this is what they use

"We use the following mixture of light bulbs:

VHO combination (50/50) & Actinic.

Metal Halide: 175W/12K. 250W/65K. 400W/20K

Natural SunLight"


i'll try adding actinics and see what I get. Right now, the clams are under PC's to get them acclimated. (they'll be under 250W MH afterwards)


to give some credit to Adam, he shipped the clams for free yesterday even though the free shipping offer expired monday afternoon. I also don't intend this message to be complaining in nature, I just wanted some other opinons before I come to any conclusions.

 

[jamesw]

I dunno about you guys, but those clams look pretty good to me.

Give them a couple of days to open up and spread out a bit and they will look even better.

Cheers
James

 

[newkie]

I'm not sure if they messed up on the last one (the green vs electric blue) but the others certainly look like their cquarium pics. They have disclaimers about the colors and clam measurements you could double check. I usually don't MO clams, but whenever I MO acros I fully expect the coral to color up in a completely different way in my tank. After the stress of shipping they may color up in a week. Also you have to assume your lighting is different. Basically as long as they sent you the clams you ordered I wouldn't raise an issue. If anything think of it as a lesson learnt to purchase from your lfs next time. But personally I think you got some great lookin clams there! Best of luck!

 

[danmhippo]

I did not go to their site to see if there are measurements. But judging from the color of the clam, it is the one's you received. IMHO, lighting makes a lot of differences on how they would appear in the tanks.

 

[Bubafat]

Ya, it looks like they have a lot more actinic then you do...plus IMHO PC's really stink for color compaired to VHO. I know a lot of people will disagree with me there, but PC's just seem to green/yellow.

Buba

 

[Bubafat]

Hmm...something just caught my attention in those pics that they have. I know it is a serious claim...but they look like they could be photoshopped (garfed up) or at least enhanced a bit. Why do I say this? Well...if you look at all their pics, the "glare" from the lights has a VERY disctinct red color to it (it is in the upper left corner of each picture). I'm not saying that they do for sure but its worth bringing our attention to.

Buba

 

[vee]

buba

you don't think the glare is coming from the lights that they use? they claim to use 20K MH bulbs

on their site, they say they don't doctor up


Victor

 

[Bubafat]

Ya, but why/how could a 20KK bulb have a RED glare? I have radiums, they are nice and whitish blue and anything but red. I am very hesitant at claiming that they purposely doctor photos, as they are a very reputable company, but I do believe that they have their camera set to render colors brighter/more enriched then they really are.

Buba

 

[Bubafat]

This is also assuming that your camera is giving true to life colors.

Buba

 

[vee]

Well, I can attest my that the pictures I took look just like what I see with my naked eye

 

[brokekyle]

looks to me they are the same clams as on their site.. so you got what you ordered..

 

[Robf]

What's your issue with the size? they look bigger in the cquarium pictures? That's not going to be a very good argument if you decide to complain.

JM$.02 .. feel free to disagree with me.

R.

 

[vee]

My thing with the size is that their website list the four clams as

4", 5", 5", 5.75"

and by my initital look none of them match up to that size. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture with the clams next to a ruler.

 

[Robf]

My thing with the size is that their website list the four clams as

4", 5", 5", 5.75"

and by my initital look none of them match up to that size. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture with the clams next to a ruler.

Yeah, I saw that the sizes were listed on the website after I posted..

Did you see this?
http://www.cquarium.com/clammeasure.htm

R.

 

[vee]

Yup...saw that page as well and going to meausre my clams that way just to make sure

 

[vee]

also fellows,

should i be concerned that all four clams are gaping to some extent?

 

[vee]

Ok...i got pictures of the four clams next to a measuring tape.

By all interpretations, as liberal as they can, I cannot see how they got the sizes that they promised on their website

clam 1 was supposed to be 5.75"
clam 2 and 3 were supposed to be 5"
clam 4 was supposed to be 4"

no matter how many times I measured them, all of them are short more than 1 in.


clam1

clam2

clam3

clam4

this is how they say they measure their clams