Lost my clam

[Dazed1]

Came home today to find the clam like this :

I got the clam 2-3 day's ago. Accimalted it using the drip method for approx 2.5-3 hrs. Clam was open yesterday. Today morning when I woke up, i noticed that the powerhead for my HOB fuge had come loose, hence water from the fuge came out. I though, ok, nothing bad. Then saw the temp's dropped down to 73*. My heater stays in the HOB and hence water went cold
SImply attached it back, and hoped for the best. Returned from work right now and I see this. Also another thing I notice is, there is sand inside the clam and the area around the clam is "dug" . I am going to assume this to be the killer. The clown hosts in anthelia quite close to the clam. Could it have dug up sand and blown some into the clam ?
If anything, I moved the clam a little, its siphon still "works", and its obviously gaping BAD. Don't think it will make it, but


I checked my water parameter's as well just yesterday.
Amm : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 5-10
Alk - 12dKh
Ca - 430
Salinity : 1.026

 

[Fish-o-holic]

WOW, sorry about your loss. I just lost my 5" Maxima last week and it was doing great the day before it's death. I still dunno why mine died. I know how you are feeling right now. Those pics do not look good at all.

Don't give up just yet on clam keeping. I would resist the temptation of buying another clam until you find out what went wrong. How long has your tank been setup? What kind of lights do you have? Did you acclimate the clam to your lighting? Where did you buy the clam from? Just trying to help you determine a cause.

 

[Dazed1]

WOW, sorry about your loss. I just lost my 5" Maxima last week and it was doing great the day before it's death. I still dunno why mine died. I know how you are feeling right now. Those pics do not look good at all.

Don't give up just yet on clam keeping. I would resist the temptation of buying another clam until you find out what went wrong. How long has your tank been setup? What kind of lights do you have? Did you acclimate the clam to your lighting? Where did you buy the clam from? Just trying to help you determine a cause.

Thanks. I feel quite bummed right now, and will probably just go have some whiskey

I will not buy one till i know for sure what went wrong, and this time I will try a squamosa first.
Tank has been setup for 1 year. Started keeping SPS's about 2 months ago.
Using a single 250W 10000k Ushio. Its on a 20Long, which has a dept of 9" after the sand bed.
Got the clam from justphis.com . He did not ship it. I picked it up from his place since he stays 5 mile's away. This clam has been with him for quite long. First time I visited him was 5-6 months ago, and he had this clam then as well. So i know it was doing good. This clam came from a 400W light. SO i know my lighting is not too much. Or could that be the case ? My lights are another 10" off the water surface, Should I lower them ?

 

[Fish-o-holic]

I am not sure if going from 400w to 250w could have caused it's death. Did you acclimate the clam anyhow to your lights? Any crabs, shrimp, etc in your tank that could have picked on the clam?

I know when the clams get irratated (sp?), the cleaner shrimps start picking on them. Really does **** me off.

 

[Dazed1]

I am not sure if going from 400w to 250w could have caused it's death. Did you acclimate the clam anyhow to your lights? Any crabs, shrimp, etc in your tank that could have picked on the clam?

I know when the clams get irratated (sp?), the cleaner shrimps start picking on them. Really does **** me off.

I doubt the lights made a difference. WHen i put the clam in the tank, the lights were off for about 12-13hrs till they came back on. THere were no shrimp/crabs picking on the clam either

 

[Fish-o-holic]

I really don't know what to tell you except it would be a great idea to pick up the book "Giant Clams" by Daniel Knop. It's well worth the money. After the death of my second clam, I know so much more than I knew previously about clams.

By looking at your first pic, the cleanup crew took care of most of the guts of the clam. Something must have pried the clam apart.

On another note, perhaps the 73 degree temp in your tank could have caused the clam to die. I am not really a clam expert but just giving advice based on what I have learned so far.

 

[lebowski]

Sorry to hear the loss..

I'm guessing that the clam died from that drop which seems to be logical... however if that clown managed to dig up enough sand than that could have been a problem.. But still, the clam could have just blow it off or out of it....

Sorry again, if it makes you feel better I'll let you have my teardrop in my signature.


































In your dreams...

 

[Fomob]

Sorry for your loss but I Tthink I will jump in here since I am going through the loss of my second clam. The first was a freebee from my LFS. It was struggling and they gave it to me to see if I could save it. No such luck. My second one I brought home with me from Aquacon in Florida. A 4" Electric Crocea. Absolutely beautiful. He has been in my tank and doing grand for 1.5 months. This morning he begins gaping and it is clear he is going down fast. Temp and everything has been steady for months. Cannot figure this one out. He is in my 6 gal nano reef. My LFS suggested a water change, which I did, and some supplements which I also did. I am just hoping that I have a miracle in the next few days and don't have to post a pic like that. :sad2:
I just put together a 46 gallon bow front 6 weeks ago that I intended to have 4-6 clams in. I am now wondering if I should procede. I have the book on clams and have read everything there. By all accounts this should not be happening. I am thinking of trying it one more time and see what happens.

 

[cal3v]

Lebowski you better watch out, talk like that can get your clam killed or something . Anywho, anybody know how bad temp dips are on the clams? I lost a crocea a while ago when my tank temp dipped too much, but I've had worse happen and clams make it through, and the crocea came from a not so good source, so it could possibly be that too. Fomob how did the clam do?

 

[lebowski]

 

[Fomob]

Well he made it another two days but then succombed to what ever was ailing him. :sad2:
It may have been a bristleworm that I had not caught. I am laying traps in my tanks before I put another clam in either tank.
It really broke my heart to lose him because it was just gogeous and was the pride of my tank inhabitants. I am not giving up but the next one may well be a derasa and see how that does.

 

[Jimbo327]

Dazed1,

Don't worry too much about your next clam. I think a combination of things went wrong for this to occur. First of all, the clam was probably not in the best of health. You cannot tell if you clam is not healthy until it is too late. And with the shipping, it adds lots of stress which was compounded by the temperature swing. You did float the bag for 15 minutes before you started acclimating, right?

And please take that clam out of the tank. It's already dead, there is no way of saving it, and you are just jeodorizing the rest of the tank with ammonia with the dead clam.

Best o' Luck,

Jim

And Lebowski, so you're the one who bought that clam, it's nice. There are quite a few local reefers that have that same colored TD clam, and if I'm going to pay that much money, I don't want 4 other people in my neighborhood to have it. Good thing you are in Chicago. I bought another clam instead when I was at Anthony's.

 

[firechild]

Dazed,
Sorry to hear about your loss but I doubt that either the sand or the temp drop were the fatal factors alone. I believe that the clam had to be in poor health when you bought it. Clams have the ability to remove sand from themselves and if there is a high concentration of sand around them they can close off both the inhalend and exhalent syphons.
As for the temperature, I returned home from a trip to the GBR in July to find my tank in pretty bad shape due to a return pump failure. It was the middle of winter and the heater is in the sump so was cut off from the main tank. The water temp would have dropped to under 10C which I believe is somewhere in the 40s F. Not one of my 7 clams died or even showed signs of stress.

Fomob,
I see no reason to remove bristleworms from your tank. In almost all cases they are detritivores, scavengers or feed on things like amphipods. There are only a handful of the hundreds of species that will go for a live clam. Healthy clams have the ability to keep predators such as these out of themselves.

 

[Fomob]

Jimbo327
I went through all the proper acclimation steps and the thing that bothered me was that he was in the tank for quite a while and looked perfectly healthy. Mantle was open and spread and he was very responsive. I am contemplating the next move. I did take him out when it was clear that he was not going to recover.

Firechild
My LFS thought it might have been a bristleworm. They sell alot of clams and the owner has a different view on the subject. I just feel it is better to be preventative rather than risk another expensive and beautiful animal.

 

[Dazed1]

Well, if the clam was shipped, i understand that being a bad factor. But i picked up the clam from justphish.com . he stays about 15 mins away from my place. And i've seen that clam in his tank for atleast a few months. I did float the bag before accimilating it. It had the mantle extended in the bag before I even took it out
The only thing is, there are bristleworms in my tank, quite a few. But I do have a six line wrasse who doesnt eat them
Well, all I hope is next time when I get a squamosa, it goes well.

 

[firechild]

Fomob,
I suggest you attempt to remove all copepods from your tank also. Sure most of them are good but there are a couple of species that are parasitic and will get into the gills of fish and kill them, better to be safe than sorry.

 

[a.p.17]

my tank temp has dropped several timesbut it does not often affect my clam. whenever one of my clams die i think it was probably in poor halth buti just did not know it. i have had to come to grips with the fact that sometimes things just die. i hate that!

 

[zizmans]

AP17, Dude, are you a total reeftard?

Oh, and Fomob. No one has your best interest at heart like your local lfs. Best wishes!

 

[Fish-o-holic]

AP17, Dude, are you a total reeftard?

Be nice or don't say anything at all. No need to call him/her a tard. I don't see how AP17 is a "reeftard"???

 

[cal3v]

zizmans, many times livestock fades away as a result of poor holding facilities at wholesalers, overseas, etc and sometimes nothing can be done to save them.