Clam not happy

[onehundred20]

My clam of 2 years has been not opening all the way recently, Ive been battling nitrates recently and they are around 50ppm atm, could this be the cause?

 

[Dave2]

Yes, it could be the cause. Get those nitrates down and I bet it starts opening more.

 

[onehundred20]

I figured that was probaly the case, just have to wait till my new RO membrane and filters get here till I can fix it...Would hate to lose it though was my first clam that i purchased around 2 years ago.

 

[mbbuna]

i doubt it is the nitrates. clams house a very large amount of zoox and use nitrates readily. clam farms add ammonium nitrate daily to there clam race ways to excelerate growth.

have you added any new fish or shrimp?

what fish do you have?

have you made any changes to the lighting?

have you stopped, started or changed any additives?

can you post all test results from every test kit you have.

 

[onehundred20]

here is a pic of him today...I havent added any new fish in over a year....I have maroon clown, purple tang, clown grouper, lion fish, all of these fish have been with him since about when I got him....Havent changed the lighting but I am about due for new bulbs. Additives are the same, I started phosban about 3 months ago but acclimated everything to it by adding about 1 tsb every 2 weeks or so.

I dont currently have a NH test kit but I can post cal, alk, nitrate, nitrite salinity etc.

I also noticed my mexican turbo snail has some pyramid snails, but I cant seem to see any on the clam I also was told they go for one or the other. This same snail had them about a year ago but havent noticed them till now again.

 

[mbbuna]

how long has the clam been "not looking so good"?

im sorry to say that IMO the clam is beyond help.

i also dont see very much new shell growth.

there is quite a debate about if pyrams will go from snails to clams. some say they definitely will not do it. i recently asked Greenbean if he would look for the paper that states this. what he found was a study on about 40 species of pyrams that were offered a variety of food, from clams to snails to polychaete worms. they found that they are not very species specific.

http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/reprint/157/2/320

 

[ezcompany]

what i want to know is if pyramid snails take on a clam, shouldn't the damage on the mantle be visible and evident? or is in such a small scale it becomes hard to observe?

 

[Unarce]

From my experience, the ones that attacked my snails never touched my clams. Guess I've been lucky

It's hard to tell (cause of the monochromatic 20K), but it does appear that the clam hasn't grown much for awhile. Likely, whatever the cause of death was, it was put in motion some time ago.

Sorry

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8751178#post8751178 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ezcompany
what i want to know is if pyramid snails take on a clam, shouldn't the damage on the mantle be visible and evident? or is in such a small scale it becomes hard to observe?

they pierce the flesh and suck the blood. you wont see the damage from the snail piercing the flesh but you will see the long term effects of the snails feeding on the clam

 

[onehundred20]

it only started acting kinda funny when I added more flow about a month ago. went from like 30x to 60x

 

[onehundred20]

do clams die of age, this clam is pretty old

 

[ezcompany]

everything dies of age, but clams in captivity can live for over 20 years, while clams in the wild can outlive us.

 

[onehundred20]

I think he is his max size, I moved him down to a different spot hoping it will help.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I would be prepared to remove it from the tank. I am guessing the next thing you'll see is severe gaping (where the shells are wide apart, and the mantle is shrivelled up into the shell). If you get to this point, just remove it and discard it- it will decompose quickly and foul the tank.

I actually think I see a pyram snail at about 4 oclock .

 

[onehundred20]

Ive checked all over all I see is sponges, I moved him down lower and hes opened up some more, hopefully he was just unhappy with his spot but its unlikely unfortunatly.

 

[ezcompany]

can you get a daylight shot?

 

[onehundred20]

yes I will get one tommorow if hes still there

 

[onehundred20]

actually here is one from yesterday

 

[onehundred20]

and then this is earlier that day...

 

[ezcompany]

the previous one doesn't look that bad actually, there may be a glimmer of hope. i'm guessing, when in doubt, do a water change, change your bulbs, keep things steady, observe for snails at night, and hope for the best.