Need help quick

[skatezen]

To make a long story short.... My tank has been going for 10 months now. What I thought to be baby snail on my Astreas seem to be pyramid snails. Not knowing this I let the problem go on since the introduction of the snails. Wednesday I bought my first clam and noticed its mantle was pinched so I did a search on RC and the recommended solution was a FW dip. In doing this search I realized that the "baby snails" that are everywhere are pyramid snails I have tons of them and are on all of my astreas and glass. I want to save my clam/snails ect... What should I do with this many pyramids? How do I eradicated them quickly enough? I must have at least 25 snails and the 1 maxima.

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

 

[Peabody]

Ouch. You're in a tough spot. There are some wrasses that do a good job of controlling them (if there are 2 or 3 maybe), but sounds like you have a major infestation.

Your best option might be QTing the clam and snails to starve off the snails in your main system. After a while, they could be reintroduced.

 

[Peabody]

For the mean time manual removal will be best. Remove every one from your astreas. Pull your clam out every night after dark for a while and check with a magnifying glass around his byssal gland and scutes especially.

 

[skatezen]

Would this be too much stress on the small clam? It is only 2" I just got it on wednesday and is already showing signs of pinching. I spot feed DT's daily i figured it couldn't hurt to feed it small amounts daily vs larger amounts every other day. Should I do a FW dip to help with the pinching? I don't want to stress it too much, but i fear no matter what I do I will lose the clam anyways. I will take out as many of the pyramids as possible by hand. Any other advise?

Jeff

 

[Peabody]

Can you QT him uder a good (MH) light source?

 

[skatezen]

Unfortunatly no...the best light i have is a PC either 130 or 190 i forget which. I don't have any spare MH. I "might" be able to borrow one if i ask around.

 

[Peabody]

You could give him to a friend with MH for a while, just make sure he has no snails on him when you hand him over. Then you could rid your tank of them and get the clam back. Just make sure you can get it back and the friend doesn't get permenantly attached!

 

[Reefcherie]

From what I read, you would want to keep you tank clam free for 6 months to ensure the parasitic snails are completely wiped out. If they are also feeding on your Astrea snails, you'd need to remove them as well. Those parasitic snails often come in on large snails, so I'm assuming they do prey on them as well.

Cheri