help for clams

[dessy]

we own several clams and have been experiencing trouble w/ our crocia clams. we have a 125 gal reef tank w/ halide lighting. a few clams have shrunk up and died and we can't figure out why. our water is good and flow and lightig is good. we noticed a lot of pin-head sized snail looking critters that come out at nite (thousands!!) can anyone identify these??? help.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

It sounds like a bad infestation of Pyramidellidae {'Pyramid'} snails. They suck the juices out of Tridacna at night.
You need to immediately manually remove as many as possible. Get some fish in your aquarium that prey on these little clam vampires. Try a Red Sea Dottyback or 6-line Wrasse. Don't hesitate, or your clams will soon be gone.

 

[Peabody]

Ouch...sorry....you need to rid your tank of these little devils ASAP or you will lose all your clams....some fish will eat them, but you have to be careful, they will prey on your bigger snails too. Manually remove your clams at night every night for at least a week...use a magnifying glass and tweezers or something and remove every single snail and egg mass, including those around the byssall organ and in the scutes. Do this until you haven't seen any on any clam for several nights in a row and you will have put a good dent in the population. Getting a 6-line would be a good idea too.

Best of luck to you and your clams!

 

[dessy]

oh my god!!! i am about to have a stroke! we looked at the tank at night and there were at least 1,000 (if not more) of this white parasites all over the tank! i will be impossible to manually remove them, there are everywhere! i don't think we can take the clams out at night because we have no place to put them, besides we have a 9-10 inch teardrop maxima that is so HUGE we had a hard time getting it in the tank. we also have a black maxima, a blue maxima and 4 crocea clams that are still alive. all this clams are so beautiful, i will not be able to take it if they die. PLEASE let us know what else to do!!??? should we just take them to the LFS to save them or what? we do have a six line wrasse, but he is not doing anything obviously...
we need help ASAP! thank you very much for the helpfull info.
p.s. by the way we have had this snails for a while, but we thought they are just babies. is there any other way to get rid of them? now i see they are all over the astrea snails also.
do you think they bother SPS corals like hydropora's? some of them bleached also. this is turning into a nightmare. HELP:eek2:
thanks again for your advise

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Sounds like you have some expensive clams! This is what I would do ASAP: You might be able to save your clams with some immediate effort. Remove each clam from the aquarium. Work over a plastic dish or bucket filled with tankwater. Search and destroy any and all 'rice' snails you can find. Pick 'em off. Scrub the Tridacna shells with a toothbrush thoroughly to remove any eggs. {One eggmass or snail left behind can result in hundreds of new pyramid snails in a matter of days!} It's a PITA, but at the population level you describe, there is no choice. You must also get the pyramid/rice snails off of your Astrea. You will most likely need to repeat the removal process. I've saved clams from these bloodthirsty killers before, but it's no fun. Rice snails are not known to attack Hydnophora- I think your corals are suffering from separate issues.

 

[dessy]

thanks for the tip. we will take them out as soon as i get home, but the astrea i don't think will be possible to clean. we just got a package of 50 astreas and they are in a 120 gallon reef, so they are all over. do you think that even if we clean the clams, new ones won't get on them? any ideas how to clean the whole tank? do you think we will have to part with our clams in order to save them? thanks

 

[commandertekki]

is there a pic of these pyramid snails

 

[holeinone1972]

If you lose all your clams, you will need to keep all mollusks, (clams and snails) out of the system for quite a while. If there is no pray, there can be no predator.

6 months or so.

I had them bad once in my 240, and there was no way to rid them.

No clams, no snails for a long time, and you will have no pyramid snails eventually.

Fish as pyramid predators are iffy at best. I suspect my anampses wrasse ( new guinea wrase) of eating them, but never ever saw a 6 line touch them at all.

 

[dessy]

I am devastated! it sounds like we might have to take the clams out and either have someone keep them for us for 6 months or try and sell them, but i don't know if it is a good idea since we have this problem, even if we try to clean them as good as we possibly can. what do you think? I wonder how we got them to start with.... any other ideas? thank you so much for your help. this is the first time we posted a message and all of your replies are so helpfull! thank again

 

[crimson156]

set up a 30 gal near your main tank
put it as close to the lighting system as possible, or move the sytem in between both tanks
start a syphon from the main tank to the 30 gal, new clam tank,
and have a water pump pump water back to the main tank at the same rate its being syphoned in
u now have a clam tank and have added 30 gal of water to your system giving it more stability
now it'll be easier to take off the snails when u see them since there's less places for them to hide and most are now in the main tank away from your clams

 

[Peabody]

Be careful....if you give your clams to someone else or move them to a seperate tank you have to be 100% sure that EVERY snail and egg sac has been removed from it's shell, scutes, byssal area, etc.

We're pulling for you...good luck!

 

[dessy]

thanks everybody for the great advise. we are a bit overwhelmed, but will decide what to do tonight. will keep you posted. the idea for the 30 gal is great but we cannot move the lights, they hang from the ceiling.

 

[crimson156]

thats what i figured, about the lights hanging from the ceiling, which i said put the tank as close as u can preferably against the main tank and move the lights over, don't have to take em down- they are hanging which means they can swing so swing em over a little and tie them to something to hold them in place

 

[dessy]

hello everybody,
unfortunately another clam died. we tried cleaning them but it is impossible to keep these vampires away, they are so many. we also couldn't find anyone to host the clams for us. so, our only other option is to set up a small clam tank and pull them out of the reef. we are thinking of ordering a MH pendant and getting a 20-30 gallon tank. we have a skimmer and a power head. can you give is an idea as to what would be the best way to do that? we need to do this ASAP. also, does anyone know where we can get a clam tank (a lookdown) for a decent price. We need your expert opinion. thank you

 

[Peabody]

The coolest clam only tanks are at www.clamsdirect.com

 

[crimson156]

buy a brand new bare 20 gal tank from walmart or a pet store and do what i said
u can put a pendant like u want over it instead of moving your current light setup, but i think the pendant's gonna run u 2-300(pendant, bulb,wires, and ballast)

 

[dessy]

yes, it will be a lot but we have no choice, the way the tank is set up, we cannot move the lights. do you think we can transfer the clams right away if we put some sand and rock? we cannot wait for it to cycle, they will all be gone by then.
by the way, clamsdirect are closed right now. i guess a simple tank will do it for the moment

 

[crimson156]

ya if u tranfer rock it should be fine, do a syphon in and pump out like i sadi this way the main tank water quality is the water quality thats in the small clam tank
don't bother disturbing your sand bed it'll do more bad than good, some nasty stuff in your sand bed 2" or more deep.
just put new sand into the new tank
any way u could lack up your lighting a little bit and then put a 10 gal tank into your main tank(like in a corner) and secure the 10 gal in place- this way u don't need new lighting
just keep the top of the 10 gal a couple inches above the main tanks top

 

[dessy]

thanks for the advise! we will start working on it tomorrow. i hope its not too late

 

[hwynboy]

Where did you but this lot of Astrea snails...how long have you had the clams? All incoming snails should be VERY well inspected as they are not predators to just clams they attack all types of snails. I feel your pain, if I have this situation I would be devastated I own 3 teardrop clams and my largest is about 8-9 inches as well....they are my babies.