0/2 with clams and want to try again...

O

ocamrzr

New member
Ok, the 125gal reef has been up for 11 months. Three months ago I placed a maxima in the tank 3". Over the course of 2 weeks it became more clear and less colorful and then stopped opening and died. I found a great deal on another 3" maxima and basically the same thing happened only after about 5 weeks. I also CANNOT seem to keep a linkia star blue,orange, purple, you name it, after 3-4 weeks they start to get some necrosis then melt away.

The tank 125g reef, 2 X 100gal sumps one fuge one sump. 175w 10K MH over the fuge with a LARGE amonut of marco, 8" sand bed and a few misc corals. tank lighing 3 X 250w 12K MH with 2 X 48" VHO actinic. water 77-80deg, chilled, 1.025, KH 11, Ca 420, NO3 recently up at 25 (housing a couple of extra fish in the sump I need to sell). There is about 220 lbs live rock in the system, everything else is FINE. This includes: SPS, LPS, fish, small urchin, cuke, 2 cleaner, 2 fire, 1 pistol, 2 peppermint shrimp.

I wonder if there might be a predator. I never noticed anything bothering any of the now dead specimens. There are turbo snails in the tank but that's it. I am scared to throw away any more money on clams or starfish...please help.
 
Are you able to keep snails? Has the tank ever had any kind of copper treatment in it?
 
yes, ihave multiple turbos in the tank and it has never seen copper. I got some cuprisorb with the same thought and put it in the tank just wondering if some of my live rock had been contaminated....it has not changed color.
 
I just remembered I have a tubastria which lives on a large oyster (about 4" wide) and it does FINE and has for about 6 months now.

If no other thoughts to a cause, what would be the hardiest clam to start with, again? Giga, squamosa?
 
Could it be some kind of fluctation in salinity, temp, pH, etc... I believe linkia starfish are very susceptible to these kinds of changes.

-Jonny
 
change your 250WT 12K over to 10K, from what I'veseen and learned, the spectrum makes a big difference in the clam coloration.

Good Luck
 
Syee - Do you think it would make enough difference to kill the clam???

The salinity is stable, with a top off system and 300g total. Also, the temp is regulated by a medusa, heater and chiller. I think the system is pretty stable. There are a couple of reef hermit crabs that never seem to pick on anything....
 
could just be the water...are you getting them from the same place? I tend to feed my clams that are 3 and under more directly with a "baby's medicine needle". Maybe you should try a hardier size and type.... I would say try a Crocea, cheaper and less lighting needs(not too picky). I don't see anything wrong with your tank (from what you wrote), what are you dosing your tank with? Clams are not tolerant of alot of things...stron, iodine, etc etc. All I use is B-Ionic 2 part everyday... Are you dosing your tank with "phyto"? I did hear that some batches of clams from the wild are diseased, my friends tank is perfect in every way ...water, salinity, calcium and he's running a direct 250 MH 20K over a 54 corner, his clams don't do too well either.....don't know if this helps.
 
I got them from 2 different places and one had been in the tank for 9 months, which was why I took him home. I will start next with an easier to care for species and keep my fingers crossed. I dose calcium and have a reactor. I was putting some iodine in the tank when all this happened but have not put any in 3-4 months but certianly was at the time of the clam problems, come to think of it I was using some strontium as well....hmmm.... Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Don't know if I'd call a crocea hardier, I thought they were one of the more demanding clams. I think a squamosa or derasa would be less demanding in terms of light and water conditions- though they grow to a large size and aren't as colorful.

smy168- those are some awesome looking clams in your gallery pics. What kind of lighting do you have those under?

-Jonny
 
150WATT DE MH 20K , my tank is a 26 Gallon Bow so the clams are about 18 inches from the light.
 
you have some great looking clams! do you feed them? It looks like they are well over 3" and you probably don't but let me know..
 
I dose my tank daily with 2 types of food for the clams...KoralVitF and DTs Live Phyto. I alternate every other day. What you see are 2 maximas (1 Teardrop 4 inches: 1Ultra 2.5 inches) 2 Croceas (1-4 inches: 1-3 inches) and a Derasa (Blue Rim 3 inches).

Since I have a 26 gallon tank witha 3 gallon HOB Refugium, I does about 1.5 mm of phyto and KoralVitf per day. I've watched them all go through their "things": gaping, closed for 2 plus days, shifting/moving/jumping and after a couple of months of trying to mount them on the rockwork, I realized that they seem happy on the sandben...so that's where they stay.

I'm glad you enjoyed the photo.
 
My take on it is your probably buying starving clams which equals dead and dying clams. Have you noticed gaping at all or any other irregularities? What about their foot? when they are taken off their perch does it look like it has a healthy foot? Little things help determine health in my opinion and a key to keeping clams alive is getting healthy clams from the get go which is difficult if you have a lackluster lfs. Other than that you might be getting clams that need to be target fed. I know the rule of thumb is 3 inches does'nt need as much phyto but just to be on the safe side you should at least try to target feed them once in a while because it seems like your clams are just wasting away

Another thing you didnt mention calcium or alkilinity. Its obvious that you keep sps corals and such and have to dose or use a calcium reactor but check to see if that is stable

All clams are relatively hardy even crocea's which can handle salinity shifts like a champion my personal belief in raising healthy clams is buying healthy clams. It makes a world of difference. Nursing sickly clams or buying clams from lfs's that have inadequate lighting(both of which I have done) usually becomes a hassle and usually ends up in a causualty especially if you light shock the damn critters.
 
Sorry for the incomplete info, reactor and I have to add Ca to keep it >400 (usually 440) and the KH stays 11-12.

Any recs on a healthy clam source? My LFS and all the ones in the area do very few clams...would corceas be a good restart? The foot initially was "hanging" off the clam, which I suppose is normal but later in their short life it fell off both. I tried taking them out and direct feeding but they didn't respond too well....

Thanks again for the replies! I will support a clam yet!
 
Actually you dont have to take them out of the tank. You could cut the bottom out of a 2 liter bottle. Then fill it up with some DT's close the cap then submerge it over the clam I dont know who told me that one but it sure does help. Theres a lot of posts here on reef central that describe healthy clams and what you should look for.
Heres a few online places that i like.


http://www.clamsdirect.com/

http://www.eastcoastclams.com./cgi-...ispage&thispage=db_60.html&ORDER_ID=270291953

cant forget

http://www.drmaccorals.com/sys-tmpl/door/

clams direct by far has the largest selection.
 
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