FW dip my crocea?

[Travis]

I'm trying to decide if I should do a 30 minute dip for my crocea as suggested in the pinching disease thread. I have only had my 3.5" crocea for a week now. Since day 1 it has showed signs of pinching. It seems to look good most of the day until the last 3 hours of the lighting cycle. Then there is one spot on the matle that pinches. The pinching has not spread to other parts of the mantle yet. I got 3 other clams with this crocea and they are all doing fine.

Is it too early to dip this clam since it has only been in my tank for a week? If so, how long should I wait? I checked the clam for any predators and found none.

 

[OrionN]

From your description, it does sound like your clam (now clams) have the same disease as mine. Your clam can last for months with the disease (if he is basically in good shape)
You should fresh water dip all your clams, instead of only dip the one clam with the disease. This disease is fairly infectious. Chances are more than 50% that the rest of the clams have this problem now.
If you have two tanks, you can dip the sick clam and move him to an other tank. You can dip the other clams as they show evidence of the disease. If you only have one tank, I would dip all the clams at one time. If they are basically healthy, they should survive the dip fine.
From personal experience, I did not get rid of the disease from my tank until I dipped all the clams at once, included my large Gigas.
Good luck,
Minh Nguyen

 

[RonN]

Minh,

Do you use ro/di water and what do you use to adjust the ph? How long do you leave them in there?

I have 12 clams and only one shows this sign and it has been in my tank for about 2 months. All other look great, even the Pohnpei clams.

Ron

 

[Travis]

Alright, I'm going to dip all of them (1 crocea, 1 hippopus, 1 maxima and 1 derasa). I will post my results in the thread already started that talks about this disease and the FW dip.

 

[Lunchbucket]

taggin

 

[Travis]

RonN, I just did a search and baking soda is recommended to raise the ph and vinegar to lower it. I just got done using the baking soda and it is potent. It only took a couple pinches to get 1 gallon of ro/di from 7.2 to 8.2. Minh dips his clams for 30 minutes.

 

[RonN]

Thanks,

Didn't know about the vinegar.

 

[OrionN]

I dipped my clams for 30 minutes using RO water, adjusted temperature so that it is about the temperature of the tank. I did not check the tank or the RO pH.
IMO and IME, pH adjustment is not really needed but you can do it if you want to.
Minh

 

[Travis]

Did the dip 16 hours ago. 30 minutes in fresh ro/di water that was aerated and adjusted to the same ph. I don't think my maxima is going to make it. Bristleworms were running circles around its base last night. Crocea looks fair and the Derasa and Hippopus look great.

 

[ADS]

Minh-
What is the 'science' behind the FW dip? What is being eliminated by this method?
Alot of people seem to be dipping clams at the first sign of any mantle irregularity. Unfortunately the outcomes in the posts here are poor.
Thanks,
Adam

 

[OrionN]

Minh-
What is the 'science' behind the FW dip? What is being eliminated by this method?
Alot of people seem to be dipping clams at the first sign of any mantle irregularity. Unfortunately the outcomes in the posts here are poor.
Thanks,
Adam

There are no literature about this treatment at all. I have lots of clams and when they got infected by this disease, I though about treatment a great deal. All of this was documented in my posted regarding this problem. I had success in using this treatment for this particular disease in my clam tank. My reason is that the infected organism for the particular disease that infected my clams must be external parasites, not micro-organism that infected the clams internally.
You can see my original post here:
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21957&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I have always caution people about dipping clams for "pinched mantels" It is stressful for sick clams.
After you read through this long thread, if you have any question, I will be happy to answer them for you.

Minh

 

[ADS]

Thanks Minh-
I did read all your posts last fall. Has this empiric treatment for ectoparasites succeeded longterm?
Has anyone sent their dead clam for necropsy after this disease to your knowledge?
Adam

 

[OrionN]

Thanks Minh-
I did read all your posts last fall. Has this empiric treatment for ectoparasites succeeded longterm?
Has anyone sent their dead clam for necropsy after this disease to your knowledge?
Adam

The treatment was completely successfully for me. All my clams were cure of this infection.
There were no necropsy as far as I know.
Minh Nguyen

 

[Travis]

It has been 6 days now since I dipped my clams. All the clams recovered and are looking great (even the maxima). None of them are showing any signs of pinching mantles anymore.