3.5 inch Gigas Sick?

[rudy64]

Well to start off with, my tank:

75 gallon

2 X 250W 14,000K Phoenix bulbs with 2 54 watt 420 and 460 nm T5 actinics

#1 Calcium 400 ppm
#2 Salinity 1.026
#3 Alkalinity 3 meq/L
#4 Ph 8.3
#5 Magnesium ?
#6 Temp 80 deg F
#7 Nitrates 0
#8 Nitrites 0
#9 Phosphate < 0.00 ppm
#10 Ammonia <0.0 ppm

I received a 3.5 inch Gigas on November 6th and all looked well. The next week, the mantle started to retract into the shell. The weird thing is that it slowly reacts to shadows and is partially closed during the day, it even closes its intake siphon for minutes at a time. At night, it opens considerably and its intake siphon is wide open (Gaping). I got a 2 inch maxima and it does the same thing. I have never seen this. I feed DT live Phyto every other night. Does anyone have any experience with this happening and do you think my Gigas is a goner? My 3.5 inch Crocea, 4 inch Deresa, and 2.5 inch Teardrop Maxima are all fine and they act normal. Only the new Gigas and new 2 inch Maxima start gaping at night.

This photo album contains a pic of my tank (taken about 2 months ago, 10,000K lighting), my gigas when it first arrived, my gigas now during the day (retracted), and it now at night (Gaping):

http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l235/rudy64/75 Gallon/

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[rudy64]

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

The clam isn't near any corals and I'm reasonably sure (95%) that there are no large worms or any fish bothering my clams. No rice snails are present on this clam either.

 

[mbbuna]

[welcome]

what your describing is pretty typical of a fish nipping. what fish do you have

 

[rudy64]

1 Hippo tang, clownfish, purple pseudochromis, 6 line wrasse, and and a 1.5 inch sailfin tang. All are peaceful and have never taken an interest in my other clams. I have never seen them touch the new clams, and I have no large worms that I can see (I've checked throughout the night with a red light). I just did a snail check and I noticed that both the new maxima and gigas are WIDE OPEN and will not react to me picking them up. They feel almost like a spring is keeping them open. The maxima acts normal during the day now but starts gaping at night (he is doing it now).

 

[skinz78]

have you checked for pyramid snails? Most of the time when you have a fish that nip's you will never see it doing so

 

[mscarpena]

Thats weird, but does not sound good they should be reacting to your touch very quickly. Did you get them from a reputable source and did you acclimate them well. All other calms are doing well so I would think either they were not kept well at perviou owners or maybe not acclimated well enough. Good luck

 

[Haddonisreef]

I would bet on the sail fin! If its the snails look on the bottom of the shell and you will see them. If you have a clear container to put over the clam too see if it looks better then you will know there a culprit in the house! Good luck