Help my with this sick clam

[AcroSteve]

Here is a pic from the 22nd.

This conditon has gotten much worse.

I was thinking this might be "clamping" But I ded a search on it and came up with nothing. I think I have the wrong term. But I am thinking it is a disease that I have read about before here.

Here is the pic from today.

Sorry, but there is a problem with my website.

 

[AcroSteve]

I think two of my other clams are starting to show sighns of this, but I could just be paranoid.

 

[AcroSteve]

Pinching! That is what I was thinking about.


Does this look like piching?

This has progressed for some time now.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=357735

 

[Julio]

you might want to increase the flow over the clam and see if that helps.

 

[AcroSteve]

Here is the better pic.

 

[Julio]

what is your ammonia and nitrate levels?

 

[AcroSteve]

I will check tonight.

 

[alde]

I had a crocea do this. Mine looked a bit worse. I did a fresh water dip and the clam is fine 3 months later.

 

[AcroSteve]

How many minutes did you dip?

 

[alde]

How many minutes did you dip?

20 minutes for mine. I have heard of people doing 30 or more but that just seems like too long.

It's a hard decision to make. I don't want to tell you that you should dip your clam. It worked for my clam but it may or may not for yours.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[Julio]

so what were your readings for ammonia and nitrates?

 

[AcroSteve]

Finally got around to testing the tank.

Nitrates = 0
Amonia = 0
CA = 400
Alk=4.7
MG=1150

 

[Julio]

so is the clam doing any better now?

 

[AcroSteve]

No, the clam is not doing any better.

In fact there are now more clams with this problem.

Here is a crocea from the same shipment.

And then the same clam just yesterday.

Can anybody confirm or not that this is pinching? I need to get this figured out. Should I just start dipping the clams? I think this clam is attached to the bottom glass, so I will have to get the razor blade out.

There are now 5 clams in the tank. My original derasa shows no signs of this yet. The other 4 are showing signs of this problem.

The original clam in this thread is now in my buddies tank along with one other I had. He had no previous clams.

My problem is, I am setting up a 180 that already has two HUGE clams in it.

And I do not want to have problems with them. Also, my derasa that looks fine now, should I dip it in FW and then transfer it to the new tank? Would that eliminate any cross contamination?

Help please.

 

[Julio]

you might want to move him up to the rocks as it could be that bristtle worms are bothereing the clam, lift up the clam and see if there are any under or around him.

 

[AcroSteve]

I will look for the bristle worms, but I doubt that is it. This looks to be a contageous issue. I sure hope I find something, but I am not holding my breath.

Most of these clams have been elevated off of the sandbed with pvc rings, and I have not seen any worms on them during my periodic inspections.

Any other opinions? Anybody have any thoughts on freshwater dipping these clams?

 

[GoFishJoel]

That does not look like pinching to me. I am new however, so I am not sure. How much light are they under? I would give them more time before I would try anything light a dip. Are you feeding the tank with anything for the clams? Crocea however are the least likely to take the "clam" foods.
I would email the pictures to the wet web media crew and see what they think.
I think you should just watch them for a little longer. It might not be contagious but just their response to the light and water movement.

 

[AcroSteve]

Well I removed the clam(was not attached) and did a 20 minute FW dip.


The original clam is looking better according to my friend. No other action was taken on it.

 

[Julio]

keep us posted.

 

[AcroSteve]

Here it is 24 hours after the dip. Looking better.