Clam troubles

[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.

[The Grizz]

When all my clam deaths occured there was no sign from any of my other coral AT ALL. Parameters were all good, skimmers were not going totally nuts. I did notice that the first one to go in the latest string was looking fab, I had to move it and when I did there were several Bristol worm around it foot and inside. Pulled as many out as I could but it was just a matter of time and it was gone. All the rest just started not open up as much day after day until BAM GONE.

I think the one I got from Doug is not going to make it as it is really not looking any better.

[Delphinus]

A couple more thoughts. Bristle worms are almost certainly innocent of causing clam death in most if not all cases .. but they will move in quickly to scavenge once a clam starts declining. Ie., they may deal the finishing blow (or just clean up after the fact) but they're not usually the first-strike.

Also, I see a LOT of clams on the sand bed in tanks. If you see clams in the wild it is only the sand specific species (Hippopus, derasa, maybe squamosa) out in the open like that. Maxima and crocea are almost always buried to the mantle in rock. These leaves their rather large byssal glands protected (which is a weakly defended point of entry). So maybe I should take back what I just said about bristle worms and for that matter, brittle stars and copepods and who knows what else, if they gain point of entry via the byssal gland, the clam can get irritated in my experience, a clam doesn't stay irritated for very long before its health is affected.

Also in my experience they are hugely sensitive to temperature swings.

It could just be rotten luck and coincidence since they are basically very sensitive to a lot of different things and then one thing just leads to another. It sucks.

I'm very curious how many clams make it past 5-6 years in captivity.

[Nebthet]

Originally Posted by 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?

That is part of what I am finding rather strange. Especially with the tank parameters. I tested three times in a row to make sure I was doing it right and with a new test kit as well as I thought it was strange as well.

Like Grizz, my skimmer wasn't going out of whack either.

In terms of the bristle worms, when I removed the clams from the tank, I did so a couple hours after lights out when all my bristle worms come out to play, and once I had the clam in my hands used a flashlight to look it over from the tank bottom up, out and into a tub of freshwater to kill anything inside to see if there was anything hanging out inside eating them. Nothing came out of the shell or fell off dead in the water. Not even any snails.

Even throughout the day I was checking around the clam and nothing was crawling near it.. I have had other corals dying in my tank before and the BW's are all over it as soon as it starts going, lights on or off.

I also keep my clams, that are on the sand bed on a pedal disc so it can bore into something if it wants. Whatever it is also hit my clam that was attached to the rocks and not the sand at all.

I am finding it really interesting that a lot of people are having the same issues with their clams all at the same time.

[reefwars]

i think contagious is a good theme to start with here and for the ones i know who are having issues some of them are the cleanest tanks i know of and same thing water parameters are spot on and always are.

i dont doubt the bristle worms power but i had lots of clams and they never bothered mine.i bet theyd be on it for an essy meal if the chance arouse but they have plenty of food to get without having to fight through a clam to munch.

my buddys clams are looking good one day then not hot the next and dead the day after that.he lost all but 2 of ten since december im trying to help him out and all we can come up with is they all came from this city or close to. i heard from someone else then what wes heard about the "parasites"
possibly being to blame as everyone around here is losing them.

kinda glad i gave up the clam business while it was good sorry to hear about your clams doug especially after you waited and took so much care into saving them

[asylumdown]

egads, it sounds like the beginnings of an epidemic. Perhaps we should be asking what the people who are not losing clams are doing differently - ie, are the clams that are not spontaneously melting all living in tanks that haven't had any livestock added since before the Edmonton outbreak?

If you've got clams doing a Jonestown impression in tanks that haven't had any water from the LFS supply chain added since before this became a wide-spread problem, then it's likely not a mysterious new pathogen.

Fingers crossed for my two clams. One of mine sulked for a couple of weeks after I changed my bulbs and ballasts, but it has come back strong.

[Northernseacorals]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

A couple more thoughts. Bristle worms are almost certainly innocent of causing clam death in most if not all cases

I could not agree more, I have had up to 6 clams on the bottom of a shallow tank that was crawling with bristol worms and never lost a clam to the worms.

[michika]

I didn't read any of the posts, but I'll just chime into say that I lost one about 2-3 weeks ago. Had the clam for probably 5ish years.

[whatcaneyedo]

I've lost 6 out of my 7 within the last 12 months. 3 maxima, 2 crocea and a squamosa. The survivor is a derasa. 3 of the clams that I lost I have had for around 5 years the others were 2-3 years. In my case I suspect either a pathogen or a species of pyram snails that prefers snails but will also go after clams. I took this picture of an trochus snail being attacked by them in my tank. The odd thing is that I could never find more than 1 or 2 of these snails going after the underside of the mantle of my clams and none were ever on the bottom opening. I'd see them here and there on the glass and other hard substrates in the tank but only occasionally near a clam mantle. As you can see in the picture they are swarming the trochus snail yet none are going after the derasa which would have been an easier target. Whenever I saw them doing this I'd siphon them out. I guess even a single one of these snails can take down a clam if they attack it often enough.