I have had this dresa for about 6 months, very large... 20lbs. Beautiful animal. Did some fragging in tank(75g) and left glass tops off during the night(3/9). Didn't notice temperature was down until next evening. Temp dropped to 78 degrees (3/10). Everything in tank looked fine but the clam was receeded and sloughing off. Determined tank was cold, added another thermometer, put glass tops on, and checked water quality. Everything was right where is was supposed to be. I guesss the shock was too much for it. Today it no longer responds when lights are turned off or on. It was close to tearing from stretching so far so I tied fishing line around the back side to keep it from falling apart. I don't want it to suffer any more. It's killing me to watch it die. I don't have a camera to show you how bad it looks. It is still breathing in and out. I have done a 5g. water change the last 3 nights. changed carbon twice this week and keeping skimmer cleaned...which is picking up a lot of foam as of now. Tank is cloudy but ph=8.0, nit=0, ammon=not a trace (wasn't able to do nitrate out of a solution) Running diatom powder to clear up tank to keep and eye on it. I don't want to crash the tank. When this animal dies....does it just go flat or what? Does it disentagrate? At this point I know there is no return...what should I do for her? Thanks for your input.
my clam is not going to make it
- Thread starter igotsalt
- Start date
At night it goes down to 78 and day temp is 80 to 81. When I noticed the coldness the lights had been on all day and it was around 7pm the next evening. The tank never warmed up that day and I have no way of knowing what the tank's night temperature went down to. Weather outside was 30 degrees. It sits in front of a large double window in my basement, it is cooler there than the rest of the room. It obviously was not happy and the rest of my corals....hammer, frogspawn, torch were all extended.
phishcrazee
Member
I wonder why you keep glass over your tank? That will affect the evaporation of the tank and block a lot of the light........ what sort of lights do you have for this tank? Maybe the clam had been slowly dying over the past 6 months if the lighting wasn't good enough. You don't say what the alkalinity, calcium or salinity was in your tank........ those things can really make a difference in your clam's well-being.
I agree with the pp, that the temp change was not it, that seems like a normal temp dip and is within normal range for a reef tank.
I agree with the pp, that the temp change was not it, that seems like a normal temp dip and is within normal range for a reef tank.
4 coral life 96wt 50/50 and 2 satellite 65wt (1blue &1 white), heater is 300 wt pro-heat with probe..added another 150
pro-heat as a back up if 300 failed. Glass tops are washed weekly and put back on, along with filter and skimmer cleaning. I do not believe it ways slowly dying since it was growing in size and mantle was fully extended and very colorful. It was happy and healthy. In a 24 hour period something went wrong.
I do want to know what I have done wrong in keeping this animal so it won't happen again but also want to know what to expect as it dies.
My tank is clearing up now and it is no longer spitting white specs of flesh. I have dumped diatom powder and started again with fresh powder. Cleaned skimmer of foamy white stinky foam, and put in a new charcoal filter. Currently it is sloughing off ...this is how it acted when I 1st noticed something was wrong.
Do they disentagrate or just slide out of shell as a big piece of flesh? Remember, I still have the fishing line holding together since it was unresponsive to light changing. I see it breathing but the big white apparatus inside is shrunken.
pro-heat as a back up if 300 failed. Glass tops are washed weekly and put back on, along with filter and skimmer cleaning. I do not believe it ways slowly dying since it was growing in size and mantle was fully extended and very colorful. It was happy and healthy. In a 24 hour period something went wrong.
I do want to know what I have done wrong in keeping this animal so it won't happen again but also want to know what to expect as it dies.
My tank is clearing up now and it is no longer spitting white specs of flesh. I have dumped diatom powder and started again with fresh powder. Cleaned skimmer of foamy white stinky foam, and put in a new charcoal filter. Currently it is sloughing off ...this is how it acted when I 1st noticed something was wrong.
Do they disentagrate or just slide out of shell as a big piece of flesh? Remember, I still have the fishing line holding together since it was unresponsive to light changing. I see it breathing but the big white apparatus inside is shrunken.
