Sump’n to do’s clam is also showing PM. Its currently in my tank, and sadly, I’ve dealt with PM before. I had two crocea clams showing PM. One made it, the other didn’t.
I tried several rounds of RO dips. None were successful for more than 2 weeks. At the end, I was literally dipping my clams for an hour, (60 minutes) with no luck. I assume this is due to the clam closing up tightly and not letting the fresh water circulate in between the mantle and the shell, thereby "saving' some of the protozoans that cause this. With this in mind, I lowered the salinity of my clam QT/hospital tank down to 1.015 and kept it there for 2 weeks and treated with metronidazole. The idea being that short baths in RO kept the clam sealed up tight. However, being held in low salinity would allow it to open up and let both meds and hypo saline water into previously untreatable areas of the clam.
The one that survived browned out pretty badly, but recovered after about two weeks.
I used Seachem’s metronidazole at a dose of 1 gram per 12 gallons of water.
I spoke with Barry by phone today about this, and he's just sick about it. But he pointed out some interesting things:
He still has clams from this shipment in his system. They were all kept in the same tank. To date, none of them have shown any signs of PM. His system only has clams in it. No other inhabitants, (no fish, no inverts....just clams) Out of the recent orders he shipped out, (ours and others) only one other person, (not associated with our shipment) has stated they have PM. He called and asked about the clams he had shipped out, he didnt just see who reported issues. His theory, after speaking with several others in the hobby...is that PM is similar to Ich in some regards. Meaning the protozoan that causes PM is present in the clams to some degree, but when a significant stress comes into play, the clam's immune system is depressed, allowing the protozoan to rapidly multiple and cause problems. This makes sense if his clams back in his system are not showing signs of PM, yet some of ours are.
Sumpn2do's clam (and all the others I saw) had absolutely zero contact with Dave/Nanook's system. S2d's went from the water it was shipped in, to an acclimation container floating in my tank, had about a 30 minute acclimation, several water changes, and was placed in my tank. It began showing PM a few days ago.
Tonight I did a 30 minute RO bath. It looks better right now, but based on my past experiances, I expect it to come back shortly.
If/When that happens, the clam will go into a QT tank, and the hypo/metro treatment will begin.
Steve/LetMegrow,
Do you guys have metronidazole in stock? The Seachem containers have 5 grams total, which will treat 60 gallons, so it goes pretty quickly when you replace it daily...
here is a long thread about PM, but has some interesting information in it. You made need to join in order to read, but its worth the hassle....
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7262&highlight=pinched+mantle
Nick
