Dead Bi-Valve. Jeepers what a smell.

[Fountainhead]

Like a lot of you, I have several bi-valve things (Oysters? Mussels? Clams?) attached to my TBS rock. A couple of days ago, I detected a hideous stench coming from my tank. One of these things was laid completely open, and some crabs and serpent stars were showing interest. I went to retrieve it, and the thing just exploded apart and filled the water column. Man oh man, what a smell! I sifted out as much as I could with a net, did two 15 gallon water changes, and ran some carbon in the sump. The smell is gone now, but the memory remains.

I've heard folks here mention that these things don't seem to survive long term, but do they always expire in such a smelly fashion? I must have 7 or 8 of these left, and I'm half tempted to pull them out now so as not to smell that smell again. This was much worse than any old sponge. Anyone else experience this?

<i>Oooh, that smell,
Can you smell that smell?
Oooh, that smell,
The smell of death surrounds me.</i>

 

[Bax]

If that was one of your Arca zebras (Turkeywings) then yes, I know the smell. I had one die about six weeks into setting up my tank. Man did it stink! I was lucky enough to get it out quickly. I posted here about the passing of the critter and Richard said they are "bullet proof" and that either something was wrong, "really wrong" or it just died of old age. My water parameters were right on and the Arca was covered in all sorts of stuff, barnacles other bivalves so it was pretty old.

So I wouldn't pull the rest out too quickly.

 

[dja1980]

I actually put a dead clam into my tank with the second shipment of TBS without knowing it. It ended up toasting my entire tank through the domino effect (one dead clam killed another clam, which killed another clam, and so on). I purchased the 10gallon package, which by the time I was done hunting for dead clams, I found 16. That's 16 dead clams in only 8 gallons of water. I can't even describe to you the smell. Richard was kind enough to give me a full credit for my package, and I learned a very valuable lesson: smell every inch of the rock before you put it into your tank. You can read more about my disaster by clicking here if you'd like. Good luck.

 

[Fountainhead]

That's 16 dead clams in only 8 gallons of water. I can't even describe to you the smell.

Dude...I smelled one dead clam in 100 gallons of water. That was bad enough. I don't even want to think about what 16 clams might smell like in 8 gallons. You're lucky to be alive.

 

[allenreef2]

I had the same thing happen to a couple of mine. They are very rank. I bought some zoos form a LFS that had a large sponge under the rock, that was the onkly thing that smelled worse. I had to filet it off the rock and literally lost my stomach 3 times...

 

[Dazz]

I have had nothing but luck with mine. All the bi-valves have survived and I'm going on my 8th month.

 

[Ford_Prefect]

I had two bi-valves die and they did exactly what yours did. I pulled them out and they left nasty brown gunk floating in the tank until I could catch it all. The other 3-4 clams seem to be doing fine. The episode didn't seem to affect anyone else luckily.

 

[NoobieNemo]

nice lynyrd skynyrd song...i smelt that smell before...i was mantis hunting and pulled a big rock out of the water and smelled it...it was horrible...it had been under the huge rock for the whole entire time, I never would have known it if it wasn't for the mantis(which still escaped)

 

[nuts590]

Glad to say I haven't smelled that smell in my personal tank, but being a frequent visitor to various fish markets I know the smell... it's not entirely pleasant, but not the worst thing I've ever smelled either.. Interesting smells come from the back doors of butcher shops, livestock yards, and slaughter houses...

 

[DarknessAlive]

Ok, now I really hope I don't have to smell that after these horror stories (although I'm sure the it is a sure thing at some point since my tank is COVERED with those turkey wings, etc)! My luck, I'll puke in the tank and have an even bigger mess to clean up... :eek2:

 

[nuts590]

Isn't that what your husband is for? Cleaning up the puke while you recover on the couch?

 

[hdtran]

I probably had one of my oysters or clams die (and get eaten by the scavengers before I noticed) about 1 or 2 months in (I saw an empty half-shell which wasn't there before).

Fortunately, I have no sense of smell worth speaking of...

 

[jay24k]

I have about 5 bi valves and all doing good for about a year now. My tank crashed in the beginning because of a lack of a skimmer and oh my. The stench was horrible from the bivalves dying. The water looked like a frat party hershied in the tank. The smell was so bad that it took 3 hours after leaving my house EVERY day for 2 weeks to get that junk out of my throat. It was pure nastiness lol.

 

[Bax]

My dead Turkey Wing was pretty stinky, but the worst smell ever was amputating a dead branch of my frog spawn that had died from brown slime shortly after purchaseing it. I used a dremel and the decay flew all over the place. WOW! OMG!!! that was bad!

The frog spawn is doing fine now so all is well.

 

[tonyh67]

Does anyone know if just the act of removing one of these TBS clams will kill it? Can it reattach somewhere else, could it survive just being set somewhere else?

 

[jay24k]

What I heard was you will most likely tear the foot and it will die yes.

 

[weedhopper]

Does anyone know if just the act of removing one of these TBS clams will kill it? Can it reattach somewhere else, could it survive just being set somewhere else?

I removed 2 of them to get at Gorilla crabs and they survived. It took almost all my strength to pull it off the rock, while trying to grab the crab with tweezers in the other hand. I set them in different spots and they moved where they wanted to.
Common sense tells me that if I do such a thing, to monitor the clam to see if it does anything within a day. If so it's alive, if not, dead.

 

[hopkinkm]

I've got an arca zebra which is literally mouth down in a rock crevis. How do you dislodge these things the guy is like 3.5 inches wide. Is it just a matter of sheer brute strength? I hope not, cause I think the clam will win.

Kory