Clam troubles

[xtreme]

I've lost a couple over the last few months as you know. And now my teardrop maxima seems to be on the way out. Not sure why?

[kien]

I've notice the clam incidents lately and have been keeping a close eye on mine. So far so good. I have not added any clams since last spring I think?

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by kien

I've notice the clam incidents lately and have been keeping a close eye on mine. So far so good. I have not added any clams since last spring I think?

Ya but like I said before Kien you could make a rock grow

[christyf5]

lost one last month, it had some small hyroid-y looking things on it. I think they irritated the mantle enough that it retracted and wasn't getting enough light. Anyways it croaked. Today I find another one with two aiptasia living inside the shell at one of the ends. I scraped them out with a needle and hopefully that will work, it had its mantle retracted too.

Probly not the info you're looking for but I've had a lot of caffeine

[Delphinus]

Had 14 or 15 this time last year, most of them long term survivors ... now down to 5. That's probably enough said right there.

Actually no .. I'll keep talking for 32 seconds more. It's unfortunately not surprising. Clam death has got to be one of the most contagious things, they literally have no backbone (har har har) to stand up to peer pressure of dieing. "Come on, everyone else is doing it .. " / "Ok Ok, get off my back <dies>"

I think what happens is a sick clam releases a lot of clam-specific pathogens after it dies and they find the next host as soon as they can. Or it could be as simple as when one kicks off, it's a bioload spike but thing is you'd think you'd notice other things suffering too - usually serialized-clam-death is rather clam specific.

Unfortunately in my case I would say not all were inexplicable (I can think of specific causes in at least 2 or 4 cases). Although the rest were totally inexplicable.

[doch]

I've been having problems lately too. I lost 5 of 6... Thankfully my favorite is the lone survivor. The ones that I saw looked very similar to your pics. I had 2 left, brought them both up to my other tank, freshwater dipped them for 25 minutes, and then acclimated them to the tank. I lost one a week or two later, then the other has looked fine since.... Maybe a month ago? Try the fresh water dip... But more importantly, cross your fingers! Good luck.

[Nebthet]

Add me to the list fishytime, as you know. I have had clam issues too.. I lost all four of my clams. two teardrop maximas and two croceas.

There were no symptoms from the clams until they were too far deteriorated to do anything about it.
Something went at them from the bottom and sides eating away at them from the foot or flesh on the side when the clam opens. T
Their mantle on top would open and close like normal, as well as have full extension. No gaping, until the day of full deterioration when you could see a huge hole right through the side of the clam down to the bottom, but even then, the mantle is still mostly extended, but you can see all the muscous and what not out of the area that is disolving away.

No pyramid snails, no bristle worms, hermits or other snails on it until the day after the mantle stops opening at all. Then they go after it. (I only waited that long for the one clam because I couldn't remove it from my system without my RBTA being dishomed.

The only indication I had of anything wrong in the tank was how my corals were reacting. My blueberry encrusting monti lost it's color very quickly as did my purple passion. My Pocci kept it's polyps in and xenia was all wilted and closed up looking.

Test kit parameters all came back with nitrates, nitrites and ammonia at 0, ph 8.4, dkh 8, sg 1.025, calcium 420, magnesium 1350.

All other corals were acting just fine, even the anemones had no issues.

Within less than a week after the death of the last clam, a 10% water change and swaping out the chemipure for new stuff, all my corals are back to normal, and the colors of the ensrusting montis have come back in greater brilliance than they were before the deaths and are growing faster too.

Had I not been paying attention to my other corals I wouldn't have known there was something going on with my clams until it was too late and they were all polluting the tank at the same time. With the exception of the one, I removed all the others before they got the chance to hit full deterioration. FW Dippingg also didn't help these clams.

[daniella3d]

How do you know there were no bristle worms? they are really good at hiding and they might have eaten your clam and gone in hiding?

Also, what was the source of the pollution if the ammonia, nitritres and nitrates were all to 0?

Originally Posted by Nebthet

no bristle worms, hermits or other snails on it until the day after the mantle stops opening at all.

Had I not been paying attention to my other corals I wouldn't have known there was something going on with my clams until it was too late and they were all polluting the tank at the same time.

[fishytime]

No Kody(sp?) this thread wasnt about you and your perfectly timed PM....

I've read and heard about some stories lately and my recent woes have got me wondering what really happened or is happening, both in others cases and in mine.....

8 clams in three weeks for me......in one case I think it was me, because I bumped it really hard while cleaning the glass the rest is.....well.....the point of the thread....

I have three trains of thought.....

I had noticed that my coral beauty was payin alot of attention to pretty much all of my clams....I never thought much of it because I had a couple fish in V1 that would "peck" and never really do any damage.....then, a couple of the clams started staying retracted all the time....this is when I thought that the angel was causing the damage....about a week later there the first clam died.....a couple days later a second clam started looking like it was gonna go and I started moving all the clams that I could fit into the small tank in....the second clam died and its been one death every couple days since even after being "rescued" from the angel(of Death)....

ok so the fact that the clams kept dieing got me thinking that my tank just simply wasnt ready for clams yet.....it has only been six monthes since the crash..... I felt I was pushing it putting them back in the tank but I felt like I imposed on my clamsitter for far too long as it was....so tonight I think, Ok I'll PM Greg, to see how the clam I sold him was doing....he replies that it just recently started looking not so hot......

so now Im wondering if it is something else, like what Tony described or perhaps something like what E-towners are describing???


Im really just hoping that everyone who has had problems recently will post their experiences

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Actually no .. I'll keep talking for 32 seconds more. It's unfortunately not surprising. Clam death has got to be one of the most contagious things, they literally have no backbone (har har har) to stand up to peer pressure of dieing. "Come on, everyone else is doing it .. " / "Ok Ok, get off my back <dies>"

I think what happens is a sick clam releases a lot of clam-specific pathogens after it dies and they find the next host as soon as they can. Or it could be as simple as when one kicks off, it's a bioload spike but thing is you'd think you'd notice other things suffering too - usually serialized-clam-death is rather clam specific.

I don't know much about clams but when I was talking with Doug earlier, I pretty much said exactly what Tony said in the above quote. Not sure if that's possible or not but it sure seems like it.