Clams - pinched mantles

[Travis]

After reading this thread I decided that my crocea had this disease. As suggested my Minh I FW dipped all of my clams (1 crocea, 1 maxima, 1 derasa, 1 hippopus) for 30 minutes. I used aerated ro/di water and matched the ph. I did the dip 16 hours ago. Here are the results so far:

Hippopus: Didn't open for a few hours after the dip. Today it looks as though I never even dipped it. This clam was fine before the dip.

Derasa: Opened up half as far as normal immediately after the dip. Today it looks the same as it did yesterday before the dip. This clam was also fine before the dip.

Maxima: I did notice this clam pinch its mantle a couple times but not often enough that I would say that it had the disease for sure. After the dip the shell opened farther than normal. The clam was gaping and irresponsive to tough or light. Throughout the night I saw some bristleworms moving towards its byssal orifice. Clam is still alive today but not looking good. It does have a slight response to light as it closes about half way when a fish swims over it. It now has a white bleached spot in the center of the mantle between the two siphons. The edges of the mantle are releasing strings of brown stuff. I think it may be rotting away. I thought this clam was pretty healthy before the dip but that may not have been so.

Crocea: The crocea was the clam that I was concerned with. It was pinching a small section of its mantle during the last 3 or so hours of the lighting cycle every day. After the dip he was looking like the maxima...gaping and the shell was open more than normal. I also saw a couple bristleworms moving in towards it's byssal orifice last night. It is looking much better today. Mantle is extended over the shell and no more gaping. It is also responsive to light. The condition of the clam looks about the same as before the dip. Haven't gotten to the last few hours of the lighting cycle yet so we'll see if it is still pinching.

I will post another update in a couple days.

Travis

 

[XDrewX]

When you use Ro/DI for the dip,
how do you get the pH of the Ro/DI water to match your tanks pH.
My Ro/DI water is slightly less than 7.0..........
Thats a long way to go to 8.2

Thanks

 

[Travis]

Use baking soda to raise the ph and vinegar to lower it. It only took me a couple pinches to get my ro/di water equal to the tank ph.

 

[Syris]

Damn, I think I killed my fist clam a nice blue maxima. I have had it for 2 weeks now but it slowly started to pinch by the exit tube. I couldn't find anything irratating it and no one was picking at it. Then I found this thread and it seemed to fit the description of what my clam was doing. When I picked the clam up last night he was very lethargic but eventualy closed the shell. So I put the clam in a bucket of RO/DI that was at the same temp as the tank. I left the clam in the for 20 min. When I put him back in the main tank he was still closed and his bysal foot was limp holding the rock he was on. This morning he is still closed but I saw no signs of critters eaing him. He is doomed isn't he?

 

[simonh]

I just want to follow-up on my original post. A couple of months after the initial dip of all the clams some pinching re-appeared with the same symptoms. I followed the same procedure on all clams and placed them back in the tank. I did loose a further clam that had been suffering with the problem for alongtime before the previous dip. Since then I haven't had any further problems and all the clams have been putting on excellent shell growth and good mantle extension.

Just to say that I don't think the freshwater dip should be used just because a clam is showing pinching. First I would check out other causes like snails just below the mantle rim on a night, if sweeper tentacles are brushing the mantle etc. Also, the pinching described by myself and Minh progresses quite slowly and the clams seem able to live for some months with it (it's not a pinch today, dead tommorow type disease). I would observe the clam carefully for awhile before taking action (if possible move to quaranteen and observe if you have other clams in the tank).

 

[Travis]

I dipped my clams 6 days ago. All of them have recovered and are looking great (including the maxima). None of them are showing signs of mantle pinching. Now I'll just have to see if they are cured for good or if the disease will reappear again.

 

[Nick17]

Minh,

On clams direct, shipping is only $1.25 for overnight? (plus $10 for box) but still.. $11.25 for a clam shipped overnight?

CHEAP!! I'll be sure to get one if the price above is correct.


Thanks Minh,


-Nick

 

[Zigzag Man]

The 'shipping' is only $1.25 until you enter your address, etc., then it switches over to the normal $35 range.
I think there's a mention of this (in red) on the first clam page.

I also have two maxima clams (purchased a week or so ago) that are showing signs of this pinching, and after reading over Minh's many threads I performed a freshwater RO dip on the both of them (a 1.5" and a 3").
My 4" squamosa that I had previous to the maxima purchase shows no sign of this disease and is actually looking the best it has since I bought it.
It's also about 12" away from the other two clams (that are placed next to one another) and separated by a large chunk of live rock.

I'd still like to know also what is causing this problem. My two clams are looking as good as can be considering they just got dipped, but as far as I can tell they're already looking better than before. Their mantles aren't extending much, but they aren't as pinched up as they were.

Thanks Minh for your guidance... I was pretty hopeless with their condition until I found your threads. I hope they pull through, and if they do (knock on wood) I have you to thank for it.

 

[Travis]

Just wanted to post my results since the first dip(7/8/03). I posted about dipping them a few posts up on this page. All the clams looked great for about 3 weeks. Then the crocea(only one that was pinching in the first place) started pinching again. I gave it some time and over the next couple weeks it continued to get worse. Then I dipped it again on 8/19/03 and it looked great for a couple weeks after the dip. Now it is starting to pinch again. Whatever it is that is causing the clams to do this doesn't seem to go away. The FW dip helps for a little while but then it comes back. I guess I'll just have to dip my clam whenever I see it pinching from now on. FWIW, I don't think the dip is overly stressfull to the clams as all of mine looked good the next day.

Everyone else who has dipped their clams: Have you seen that it comes back or have you eradicated the disease from your tanks?

 

[nvert]

Good luck to you Travis. I lost four clams last year to the pinching disease. Like your's, they looked better after the dip but they would not appear healthy for long. Once the last one went last December or so I decided to wait a long time before getting another clam. The derasa is the only one that survived...been in the tank for 15 months and is about 6 inches. Nice clam and my fav since it pulled through. About 6 weeks ago, a friend broke down his tank and had to give me his crocea. I reluctantly adopted it because of my previous experience with the pinching...wasn't sure if it was going to happen all over again. No pinching as of yet...and I'm not sure why....maybe whatever it was died off since the tank was practically clamless for 9 months. Just hope it doesn't come back as I find myself checking out clamsdirect.com frequently!

Brad

 

[OrionN]

........

Everyone else who has dipped their clams: Have you seen that it comes back or have you eradicated the disease from your tanks? [/B]

I dipped all my clams (with and with out disease) at the same time and was able to get rid of the disease from my tank.
Minh

 

[lebowski]

Looks like I need to dip my little max, NOT THE TEARDROP. hehehe..

HOw long and how do I do this?? Never have dipped before....

Thanks.

 

[Travis]

I'm not "yet" convinced that this disease is contagious. I have 3 other clams in the tank that haven't been affected yet. I'm going to dip the crocea again in the next few days. I think I will try a 45 minute dip this time... and if that still doesn't work then I'll try a 60 min dip the next time. At this point I'm not concerned about the longer dip killing the clam because if this disease continues I'm sure the clam is destined to die from it eventually.

 

[OrionN]

Travis,
I battle this darn disease for more than one year. I tried various combination of treatments included treat and move to another disease free tank. It works every time if I do this, but not treat and replace it back to the same tank with other clams in it. I do have 20 + clams. Finally, I dipped all the clams at the same time include my huge T. gigas, and cure my tank of the disease.
It works for me.
If you are not concern about killing the clams with dipping, then why not dip all of them???
I just want to let you know that I have been down that road before and wanted to help you along a little.
Good luck
Minh

 

[Kreeger1]

vey interesting thread.
Erik

 

[Travis]

Minh, I did dip all the clams the first time and that didn't seem to work. Wish I had a quarantine tank I could keep the clam in for a bit but I don't... and it would be pretty expensive to set up a quarantine tank for a crocea since metal halides would be a must. Maybe I can dip it and put it in one of my LFS's tanks for a while and see what happens.

 

[nvert]

I think whatever it is IS contagious. My clams were ok until I put a wildcaught, not farmed, tear drop in my tank. Soon after they started pinching one by one. Dipped all five, the pinch went a way then was back. Dipped again and I still lost all except the Derasa. The derasa has been in the tank, happily it seems, for the last 9mos. I have a new crocea and both have not shown any pinching in the last 6 weeks.

Now, would it be possible for whatever it was to die off in those 9 months even though the derasa was in the tank? I'd hate to try another clams and go through this again. It was definately a wast of money and very beautiful living things.

Brad

 

[traveller7]

It would seem to me the "condition" spreads as well.

Watching it move from a group of croceas I have had for 8 weeks through separate tanks on system to croceas without symptoms for the last year.

I'll likely dip all 7 clams and put them into another system. Unfortunately, I'll need to move lighting and some other components first

 

[OrionN]

This is a blast from the past but anybody care to update about this disease and treatment?
For me, my tank is homefree after that last dipped when I dipped all the clams. No further problem with my clams.
Minh

 

[Zigzag Man]

The two maxima's I had with the disease eventually succumbed to it. I recently added two more pohnpei maximas, and neither has shown signs of this problem... I'm wondering if wild clams are 'immune' to this problem, since the original two that died were aquacultured, whereas the new ones aren't.
So in my case things didn't work out very well... and actually soured me on the hobby for the good part of 4 months. I've since upgraded the reef to a 120g and am now going strong again... once the loss of $150 in 2 weeks stopped stinging.