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How to Acclimate Clams

Acclimation is a process of adapting to a new environment. Changes in extreme temperatures, water pH and lack of food can be stressors for marine life such as clams. When you bring your clam home, either from the beach or from a fish store, it will be in a bag of water from its natural environment. To properly introduce the clam to its new environment, it's important to follow an acclimation procedure to ensure the clam's health.

Things You'll Need

Aquarium
Sandwich clip

Instructions

- 1
  Turn off the lights in the aquarium.
- 2
  Place the clam within its water bag into the aquarium for 15 minutes. This allows the aquarium water to normalize the temperature in the water bag gradually.
- 3
  Remove the water bag from the aquarium. Slowly and carefully pour out some of the water from the water bag down a sink drain. Be careful to keep the clam in the bottom of the bag as you pour out the water.
- 4
  Add approximately 8 ounces of the aquarium water to the water bag and wait 5 minutes. Return the water bag with the clam inside to the aquarium. Use a large sandwich clip to clip the bag to the side of the aquarium. The goal is to stabilize the clam and normalize the water within the bag incrementally so the clam will not experience additional stress or shock.
- 5
  Repeat Steps 3 and 4 approximately four times until you have replaced the water bag with mostly aquarium water. Next, slowly pour the water out of the bag down a sink drain and place the clam in the aquarium.
- 6
  Turn the lights on in the aquarium.

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