Unseentric
New member
Looking for a little imput from the more experienced clam keepers here....
I've had a 4.5" Purple/Blue Max in my tank for the past 4 months. I have observed much shell growth over this period and never was given any indication that the was unhealthy/unhappy. Well this morning the clam just didn't expand his mantle fully (maybe a half inch out of the shell; so as you could guess I was quite concerned. He still reacted to shadows and after reading about 50 threads in this forum I decided to give a really good inspection of the shell since it is located on my DSB...
I found 2 aiptasia near the mantle opening. (I have seen these before but they never seemed to bother the clam). Nevertheless, I removed the clam and gave it a good toothbrushing and ran a little fresh water over the outer shell... The clam was very responsive to me removing it from the tank, it spit
When I returned him to the tank I did the rotating (burping) exercise that was described in another thread.
He's now open a lot more (not fully), my question is to you: Did I over-react to this clam behavior? Do they occasionally close up for a day? I read in another thread about clams closing up to clean their gills (Is this true?)
My water parameters were the first thing I checked and appear good...
Alk- 10.5 dKH
Ca- 430 ppm
NO3- less than 2 ppm
Lighting is: 2x175 Ushio 10k with supplemental 2 x65 watt Actinic PCs
***Also, I have a squamosa and another maxima in the tank that look perfectly fine....
Thanks in advance for any imput.
Pete
I've had a 4.5" Purple/Blue Max in my tank for the past 4 months. I have observed much shell growth over this period and never was given any indication that the was unhealthy/unhappy. Well this morning the clam just didn't expand his mantle fully (maybe a half inch out of the shell; so as you could guess I was quite concerned. He still reacted to shadows and after reading about 50 threads in this forum I decided to give a really good inspection of the shell since it is located on my DSB...
I found 2 aiptasia near the mantle opening. (I have seen these before but they never seemed to bother the clam). Nevertheless, I removed the clam and gave it a good toothbrushing and ran a little fresh water over the outer shell... The clam was very responsive to me removing it from the tank, it spit
When I returned him to the tank I did the rotating (burping) exercise that was described in another thread.
He's now open a lot more (not fully), my question is to you: Did I over-react to this clam behavior? Do they occasionally close up for a day? I read in another thread about clams closing up to clean their gills (Is this true?)
My water parameters were the first thing I checked and appear good...
Alk- 10.5 dKH
Ca- 430 ppm
NO3- less than 2 ppm
Lighting is: 2x175 Ushio 10k with supplemental 2 x65 watt Actinic PCs
***Also, I have a squamosa and another maxima in the tank that look perfectly fine....
Thanks in advance for any imput.
Pete
