David MC Lee
Active member
My Gigas which I have raised fro a 3" clam to over a 12" clam has stopped growing.
This passed summer I moved my tank and the clam sat in a temporary tank all summer. It did just fine and did show some growth, about 1/2 the rate it had in the old tank. My Ca reactor was not setup on the temporary tank.
About two months ago I moved the clam into the main tank again and all seemed good for about a month.
For the last month I've noticed the inhalent siphon on the clam seems to remain closed all the time. Also the shell only opens up about 2/3 as much as it once did.
I would like to list what I think could be some possible causes.
Durning the first month of being in the tank the specific gravity went from about 1.025 to 1.029 before I noticed it and over the last month I have brought it back down to 1.024. I don't think it would have been at the 1.029 for more than a week.
In the temperature tank the clam had it lights closer it was under a 50/50 mix of 10K MH & 20MH. After moving him he was under 100% 10K New bulb but higher above the water. A week ago I put the 20K bulb back on. In my old setup the clam was directly under the 20K bulb with 10K near by. He is once again under these conditions but only for a week now.
Tank pH did slid down a bit a 7.9 -8.0 after first moving the clam it back up to around 8.1-8.2
Temperature has never be above 82.5 at the max. This was just one day. Most days the limit was 82.0. On the bottom it it has hit 79.5 which was just last weekend. The tank has over 1200G of water in the system so everything stays very stable.
My Ca reactor was connected about a month ago and the dkh is now up to 12 and the Ca is 450.
The clam has a lot of aiptasia anemones on him as well but I've been cutting them back near the mantel. For the most part he edge of the mantel looks good. Its just another form of stress.
Lastly a dumb mistake on my part. One day a little over a month ago I droped a coral frag straight down toward the clams inhalent siphon, I do not know if it went inside or he closed up and blew it out. Never found the frag for sure there were many frag near the bottom of the clam. About two week ago I did pick the clam up and flipped him over and had my wife look into his inhalent siphon to see if anything was in side. We could not see anything. After sitting him back down is inhalent siphon was wide open for a few minutes and we still could not see any thing. After 30minutes he closed his inhalent siphon again.
At his point I'm going to just wate a few more weeks and see how he likes the 20K bulb back over him.
Here are a few pics note the large dark patch on the last photo.
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1461.jpg>
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1462.jpg>
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1463.jpg>
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1464.jpg>
Here is a shot from about a year ago.
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN0921.jpg>
This passed summer I moved my tank and the clam sat in a temporary tank all summer. It did just fine and did show some growth, about 1/2 the rate it had in the old tank. My Ca reactor was not setup on the temporary tank.
About two months ago I moved the clam into the main tank again and all seemed good for about a month.
For the last month I've noticed the inhalent siphon on the clam seems to remain closed all the time. Also the shell only opens up about 2/3 as much as it once did.
I would like to list what I think could be some possible causes.
Durning the first month of being in the tank the specific gravity went from about 1.025 to 1.029 before I noticed it and over the last month I have brought it back down to 1.024. I don't think it would have been at the 1.029 for more than a week.
In the temperature tank the clam had it lights closer it was under a 50/50 mix of 10K MH & 20MH. After moving him he was under 100% 10K New bulb but higher above the water. A week ago I put the 20K bulb back on. In my old setup the clam was directly under the 20K bulb with 10K near by. He is once again under these conditions but only for a week now.
Tank pH did slid down a bit a 7.9 -8.0 after first moving the clam it back up to around 8.1-8.2
Temperature has never be above 82.5 at the max. This was just one day. Most days the limit was 82.0. On the bottom it it has hit 79.5 which was just last weekend. The tank has over 1200G of water in the system so everything stays very stable.
My Ca reactor was connected about a month ago and the dkh is now up to 12 and the Ca is 450.
The clam has a lot of aiptasia anemones on him as well but I've been cutting them back near the mantel. For the most part he edge of the mantel looks good. Its just another form of stress.
Lastly a dumb mistake on my part. One day a little over a month ago I droped a coral frag straight down toward the clams inhalent siphon, I do not know if it went inside or he closed up and blew it out. Never found the frag for sure there were many frag near the bottom of the clam. About two week ago I did pick the clam up and flipped him over and had my wife look into his inhalent siphon to see if anything was in side. We could not see anything. After sitting him back down is inhalent siphon was wide open for a few minutes and we still could not see any thing. After 30minutes he closed his inhalent siphon again.
At his point I'm going to just wate a few more weeks and see how he likes the 20K bulb back over him.
Here are a few pics note the large dark patch on the last photo.
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1461.jpg>
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1462.jpg>
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1463.jpg>
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN1464.jpg>
Here is a shot from about a year ago.
<img src=http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/ocean_front_view/DSCN0921.jpg>
