clams and heat
 

well I was thinking back the other day to the thread about all the clam deaths, I recall most people felt it was some sort of pathogen but a couple felt it was from heat. And even though there were tests done that confirmed a certain pathogen a few people would not believe it.

We I think my tank mishap goes to show how hardy some creatures are to heat spikes. My tank got up to 104.9 degrees F for an undisclosed amount of time. All my montipora is wiped out, my millipora is stresses but coming around, my acros are doing well, and my LPS and softies are pretending nothing happened.

All the fish are fine, no signs of stress, and my Clam is outstanding, like nothing ever happened. Now my tank this summer was regularly getting up to 88 degrees and cooling to 82 (on a daily basis) but 104.9 should have wiped the whole tank out in my opinion.

Steve

Steve, I agree. My tank routinely went from 80 to 89 daily and all my clams (and everything else) are fine.

My tank goes from 80 to 81 daily, maybe it's time I get a clam
:razz: :razz:

Lee

My 4 clams are still alive. 3 are doing well, 1 is in a breeding trap recovering from being eaten by bristleworms.

A few months back, I switched salts and I think this caused some zooxanthellae in the clams to die and make them smell dead to the bristleworms. Each day, the clams looked worse and worse and it looked like bits of their flesh were chewed from the bottom. So I put them in the floating trap and changed salts back to IO. 3 of the clams have recovered and are now back on the sandbed. The 4th one is still looking like 2 pieces of shell being held together by a thread. The shells are almost separated. However, it looks like a few more weeks or months and it should recover. I had tried prematurely to put the 4th one back on the sandbed but immediately upon placing it there, a huge bristleworm came out and snatched it to its cave beneath the liverock.

I was lucky to save all of my clams.

"A bristle worm ate my clam!" :question: :question:

Is that kind of like, "A dingo ate my baby"?

You gotta kill that rogue worm, Sam...

KILL...

:evil:

I've been killing every 4-6" bristleworm I could find. They multiple and grow like crazy. I'm losing that battle. :)

Here's a recent pic of my recovering clam. Notice bottom of shells look separated. Well, they are. When I pick up the clam, it feels like the 2 shells are loose. Feels like the shells are held together by the mantle. :rolleyes:

http://www.hyperdream.com/~samw/reef...6-4619_IMG.jpg

Sam, are you adding any additional food for the sick clam? DT's or something? It might help!

Yes, I add that Bioplankton and DT's (both new and old formula). I have so much phytoplankton in my tank, even chemipure can't keep the water clear.

:biggrin:

That clam look's unhinged at the bottom.

It's not a big deal. Des had/has one for a long time now that is unhinged/unattached at it's base

What hinges them together? I assumed it was a muscle of some sort and that it was eaten. Will it grow back?

Oh, my tank during really hot days was hitting 29.9 C with the fan on. Over the last month or 2, I would see 28-29C regularly during the day and 27C in the morning. Not too bad.