Pinched mantle & freshwater dip

Doug · #1 10-03-2007, 10:56 PM

I will take some pics Mark.

I checked out Barry,s forum, when dealing with my maxima but not recently. Perhaps I will do so again. The info on freshwater baths, came from some RC threads I read last night. They seem to agree with what Tony said but it still gives me the heebi-jeebies.

However, if I have to watch it go down hill like the maxima, I will be totally peed. Just seems such a shame that healthy growing clams, develop something like that out of the blue, unless its related to the last incident as mentioned. Crap, even that was a couple months ago though. You would figure the disease would show before then, if it remains in the tank.

I,ve looked as close as possible, without removal, for other irritants but none to be seen. Luckily the worst one is attached to rubble, so it can be removed but if the larger has the same problem, its attached to a huge flat rock as seen in the TOTM pics.

Doug · #2 10-03-2007, 11:10 PM

Tried a couple pics. Sorry but almost impossible to get close without blurring with my camera. The 1st. is the clam in question with the mantle pinching on the left side center.

The other is one I tried to get of the extreme back portion of the larger, which now has some small curling on the rear right. I know its a bad pic but perhaps you can see it.

mark · #3 10-04-2007, 01:17 AM

Thanks for the pics and luck with the clam.

Can't say ever seen picture so under impression it was part of the mantle receding back to the edge of shell, but its more of a curling.

Delphinus · #4 10-04-2007, 02:19 AM

That doesn't look like PM to me ... when I've seen PM, it's been pinched back all the way to the shell. This does seem more like it's curling rather than pinching.

However, having said that, it does seem suspicious if you've had PM recently in another clam. Clams do share communicable diseases quite easily - if you lose one clam in a tank it's a sure bet to lose another in short order.

Sooo .. weighing the options, I would do the FW dip. Basically it comes down to this: the FW bath won't hurt the clam long-term; but if it IS PM, that will kill the clam eventually..

Some good info about PM here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/jf/index.php

Aquattro · #5 10-04-2007, 02:21 AM

Doug, I have done this many times, no issues. I left one in for an hour, but normally 30 min max will do it. Use RO at the same temp as the tank, nothing else needed.