Does this equal death on my Maxima?

[J4Life]

Hello everyone,
I finally purchased my first clam. It is a purple with blue spots Maxima. I have had it for 2 weeks and I came home tonight and found it looking like this:

Is this a sign of the end. It still responds to movement over it and shadows. Also my water parameters are as follows:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Phosphate = .100 ppm
PH = 8.3
Calcium = 400

I have 440 watts of VHO's on a 75 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump. Bulbs are about 5 months old and I have lots of other corals that are doing great. I am having some trouble with a xenia. Also I just did a 10% water change tonight as well.

Hope someone can shed some light on this.

Thanks,
Bill:eek2:

 

[zenya]

Hi Bill,
It does not look good I'm afraid.In my experience,when a clam retracts like that and gapes this much,it's just about done.
Your lights seems to be ok for a 20"high tank,althogh maximas do need a lots of light. Is there a bleaching in a middle of the mantle?If it was I think it becouse of luck of light.Sorry I can't give you a better
news,but this is just my observation of your clam.

 

[J4Life]

I screwed up sorry. Check next post.


Thanks

 

[J4Life]

Hey Zenya,
No bleaching in the mantle. The color is still bright. I read another post on in the clam section where someone suggested feeding it DT's. The lady had the same exact problem that I am having only a different clam. It was a crocea. Which are the hardest to keep of all. I am going to try feeding it some placto that I have and see if it will respond. In my experience sometimes things can be saved. It may not be the case for this clam, but I have to try. Here is the thread. you maybe interested in it.

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sh...105675&highlight=clams+mantle+is+not+extended



Do you feed with DT's?


Thanks,
Bill

 

[zenya]

Hi Bill,
Yes I feed DT's to the tank a lot How did your clam look after acclimation and how did you acclimate it?What ever the reason,this clam lookes stressed.Feeding might help but I'm not sure if it will when they start to decline.I would never give up on a clam either and try to save it any way I can.Good luck to you and sorry I could not help you with more advice.I just hope one of the moderators will take a look at your clam and maybe offer more.
One more thing Bill,how is bysal opening looks?Do hermits or warms congregate arround the clam?If they are,you have to watch them as they smell dying animals for miles and will finish what ever is on the last legg.

 

[holeinone1972]

It definately does not look good. It still responds to movement? I would pick it out of water and hope it does not smell like decomposing flesh. If it does not have a rancid smell, it is still alive, or obviously if it still moving.

I would take out and inspect for lil tiny snails that look like grains of rice. Pyramid snails, no good for clam. If no apparent parasites, I would move much higher in tank to get closer to lights.

What critters do you have in tank with Maxima?

List fish, and crabs, shrimp all that good stuff. And let us know what is up? Poor lil guy looks bad.

Also what size is your clam? Keeping my fingers crossed for you and your clam, Rob

 

[zenya]

Even if clam reacts to shadows it could be dead for all intensive purposes.I've had that experience as well

 

[J4Life]

Hey Holeinone,

Ok here is a picture of what it looked liked the day before.

My clam is only 1 inch in length. As far as contents of tank. I have blue and red legged hermit crabs, several turbo snails, 2 emerald craps, firefish goby, neon goby, mandarin, 2 sebea clowns, 1 royal gramma. None of the fish have ever messed with it since it was placed into the tank. Some of the hermit crabs and snails have either climbed on it or sucked on it to try and get some algae off of him. Even when they were doing that he was open more. Also I am familiar with the parasite snails. He has none. And hasn't since I introduced him into the tank. I am wondering if he just might be a little stressed and has pulled his mantle back inside for awhile. Also I took him out last night and put him in a small bowl and added a couple of drops of plancto to it and let him feed on it for 20 minutes or so then added him back into the tank. I burped him as well. He did not smell rancid. Also I don't think moving him higher in the tank would make a difference at this point. Plus like the picture shows he was happy as a little lark before yesterday.

Zenya,
IME anything that is dead is not reactive. To be reactive to something would mean to be living. Yes I understand that clams are mussels and that they are subject to electrical currents and the like. However it may have been coincidence that the clam seems to move. Mine however moves every time it feels a vibration it doesn't like or every time I cover it from the light. I doubt that if he or she were dead, would be able to move in that respect. Also no worms or other cleaner type invertebrates have harassed him that I can tell.


Hope this helps you guys out with your ?'s. Thanks for your input thus far. I really appreciate it.

Bill

 

[holeinone1972]

I would definately continue to feed phytoplankton several days a week. At 1 inch the clam can not photosynthesize enough food for survival in the home aquaria. Keep us updated.


On a side note, I do believe that all of us should not be purchasing tiny clams like this. Clams of 2.5" and above will give most aquariusts a good chance of success in the home reef system. Clams are not all that difficult to keep if you can provide basic needs.

Ph stability between 8.0 and 8.2
Calcium levels above 350 ppm 400 and higher desired
Good water flow that does not pound continuosly on a specimen
High intensity lighting(tough one there are all kinds of possibilties here) usually 175 watt metal halides or better really depends on system and species of clam
Salinity stability somewhere between 1.024 and 1.026, but stability is the key!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Addition of Phytoplankton is good for whole system especially clams. Smaller clams under 2.5 inches in my opinion should be taken from tank a few times a week, set into a bowl of tank water and fed Dt's and then returned to tank. Be carefull that your clam does not attch with it's byssal threads or you will not be able to move him easily from the tank.

O well just some thoughts and advice. Best of luck all, and happy clamming! Rob

 

[JaMan]

I agree, I never had any good luck with small clams. They never seemed to find a happy spot, were always moveing, and pretty much died as a result of stress it seemed.

One thing you might check is to see if there are any small round holes bored in the shell. Could be a large worm eating the clam from beneath the sand.

Also, did you burp the clam when you added it to the tank? Air can become trapped in the clam when moving it from bag to tank.

 

[J4Life]

Holeinone & JaMan,
First Holeinone I appreciate your opinion on purchasing small clams. In the future after reading other info on the clams I will only buy them no smaller than 2 to 3 inches. To note however I purchased the small one in the event that if I was unsuccessfull at raising I would not be out a ton of money. Not necessarily a good way to think, but I am on a budget. Apparently Maximas seem to be pretty hardy from what I read. Maybe when I get home tonight from work things will look better.

Thanks again for your advice. By the way do all your clams cost $999.99's?

JaMan,
There are no holes. The clam is perfectly intack minus the fact that it's mantle is drawn in. I keep a pretty good eye on my tank and I do have a couple of very large bristle worms living in the live rock, but they have never bothered anything unless it was dead.


Thanks,
Bill

 

[MiNdErAsR]

Couple of things here. 440w of VHO light IMO is marginal for maximas, which are one of the more light demanding species of clam. Could be your lights are at the end of their useful life, depending upon which ballast(s) you are using. Of course this could all be moot because of the size/age of your clam, and it relying more on phytoplankton then light for nutrition. Lack of proper food probably played a major role in the decline of your clam.

The other thing that I noticed is your level of phosphate. Generally speaking 0.04 mg/l is considered on the high end. You mentioned 0.100 ppm. Is this reading accurate? Massive water changes would reduce to a more natural level.

 

[J4Life]

MiNdErAsR,
Thanks for the input. First thing though. I do not want to start a debate about lighting and I know everyone says that you need metal halides for clams, but I will have to disagree. There are a growing number of people keeping clams especially crocea's which are the most light demanding with VHO's in the same setup is mind. But like I said always appreciate input whether I agree with it or not. I do however think my lighting is fine. Also the phosphate number is wrong. Please disregard. It is close to 0.

Secondly,
I just arrived at home to find my clam's mantle back out again. It hasn't returned fully, but it looks like spot feeding it in a bowl with some of the plancto I have worked. It was good to find that thread that I posted earlier. I now have a small 8oz bottle of DT's and I just added about 5 tsp's to my 75 gallon tank. I will feed my clam again this evening with the DT's and see if it clears the water.

Here is a new pic of it today looking much better:

Thanks again everyone,
Bill