Pinched mantel?

[rydr119]

I have 8 crocea clams in my 65 gal tank. They have been doing great up until about 6 days ago. For some reason the clam I have had the longest closed up in the middle of the day. The next day it was open a little but not like normal. Now its barely open when the lights first come on and then is closes almost completely. It still has good weight and the part of the mantel I can see has good color, but now 2 of my others are not as open as usual. I don't know what to do. I am going to try to get a pic of the problem. Please help!
-Gina

 

[mbbuna]

Gina, post the pics as soon as you can

what fish do you have?

can you post all test results from every test kit you have?

have you started or stopped any additives, made any changes at all?

 

[rydr119]

I have a candy hogfish, a spotted mandrian goby, a blue hippo tang,a tomato clown, a yellow watchman goby, a rabbitfish, a bi-color blenny, a small bird wrasse I don't have shrimp or crabs b/c of the bird wrasse. I just tested the water Calcium is 420, Alkalinity is 10, pH is 8.1, the temp is 78.5, I did kill some small aptasias about 2 weeks ago with joe's juice but other then that nothing. I changed my carbon that same day and cleaned put my protein skimmer and thats it. I do those things on a regular basis though so why would it be any different now?

 

[mbbuna]

bi-color blennies are nippers, bird wrasses when they get bigger will out right eat clams. they have that long nose so they can get into crevices and eat crustaceans and shell fish. i would also keep a close eye on the rabbitfish. but for now my bet is the blennie.

cut the top off of some clear 2L soda bottles to make a dome. then drill a bunch od 1/4" holes all around it for water flow and place them over the clams. if they slowly start to open up over then next few days after you do this then you know that one of the fish is doing it

 

[rydr119]

The one with the purple is the one that had the problem originally, the smaller blue one is one that is starting to open less.

 

[rydr119]

I knew the bird wrasse could be a potential problem but I didn't know about the blenny and the rabbit fish.

 

[mbbuna]

its not pinched mantle. those apitasias will sting them also.
FYI if you didnt already know the brown clam with the circles is a maxima

 

[rydr119]

This is what they would normally look like.

 

[rydr119]

I figured they could sting thats why I tried to kill them not very sucessfully though. I forgot that a golden tear drop was a maxmia.

 

[mbbuna]

i wouldnt use joes juice around the clams. if you want to remove apitasia from a clams shell just remove the clam from the tank and scrape it off with a knife and brush the shell well and then back into the tank

 

[rydr119]

really I didn't know you could do that to a clam. should I rinse the clam in some tank water before I put it back into the tank?

 

[mbbuna]

yes that would be fine

 

[rydr119]

thanks I will give it a try and see if it helps