problem with a Tridacna gigas

[sweetlillady07]

Hi All,
Anyone got any ideas.... Im getting a bit worried about one of my clams as its mantle has retracted way back into the shell, its been like this for a few days now and also seems to be losing its colour,
I've had this 6" gigas for 12 months or so and till now has been doing really well with a very noticeable growth rate,
when i first got the clam it had some bad stretch marks so i placed it down between two rocks in a canyon on the rockwork in order to stop it opening to far apart, this has been fine untill last week when i noticed the corals ect growing above it were now blocking a lot of the light, the most shaded part of the clam was starting to look a little pale so i moved it down to the front where i could keep an eye on it, over the past few days however its mantle has retracted and its now looking very sorry for itself,
the only other thing thats been changed lately is the halide bulbs though im sure this is unconnected as my other clams have never looked so good with full mantle extention and powerfull colours,

First pic was taken a coulpe of weeks back.....

And these were taken this morning.....

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/564/154522DSC01944__WinCE_.JPG

Anyone seen this before or got any ideas??

 

[markzfishn1]

[welcome]

Gigas don't need as much light as the croceas. He might take a little while to adjust to the new halide bulbs.

 

[a4twenty]

could you list:

your tank inhabitants?

water parameters?

is there anything else you have added to the tank recently? have you changed or added and supplements lately?

 

[sweetlillady07]

Hi All,

Update on the clam, it seems to be deteriorating even more my cleaning shrimp are all over it at night cleaning all around the edges of the mantles which the clam dont like at times which it responds to by closing but not closing very tightly.
The clam is in my 400L reef system which is also connected to my seahorse tank im worried its dying and that it will wipe out my whole system i dont know what to do

pic taken this morning

The only thing that has been added are 2 sand stars

My other clams are fine

Water Parameters:

PH = 8.15
Temp = 24.5
Sg = 1.024
No2 = 0 ppm
No3 = 2.5 - 5 ppm
Nh4 = <0.25
Po4 = 0.03
Kh = 9.6 dkh
Alk = 3.43 mg/l
Mg = 1350 ppm
Ca = 410


Tank Inhabitants:

1 pair of common clowns
1 yellow tang
5 green cromis
1 bangis cardinal
1 mandarin
1 anthias
2 scooter blenny
1 6 inch derasa clam
1 5 inch gigas clam
1 2 inch maxima clam
1 fire shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
2 cleaner shrimp
2 large + 10 turbo snails
2 large + 10 blue legged hermits
5 red legged hermits

Soft corals only


Any advice will be greatly received

 

[Rovert]

Sorry to say, but it looks to me like it's a goner. I'd remove it from the tank in the hope that if there are any pathogens or pyramidellid snails infecting it, that they don't migrate to another clam. I know you tried your best, and you held out to give it a chance as long as you could. I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but were it me, I'd get it out of there now.

 

[ezcompany]

start running carbon and crank up your skimmer. i would try to isolate the clam from everything using an acrylic cage of some sort, but that could be hard considering the size of the clam. keep posting pics, it looks close to the point of no return, but not quite yet.