strange clam treatment has any one done it before?

huichao

New member
Hi,
I came accorss this treatment on the new group.(see blow), i am wondering has anyone seem it before? or try it? Please let me know.

FromÃ"šÃ‚¡GGreg P (spamcop@cox.net)
SubjectÃ"šÃ‚¡GRe: Dead maxima?!


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Ã"šÃ‚ºÃƒÂ´Ã"šÃ‚¤WÃ"šÃ‚½Ãƒâ€"Ãƒ"šÃ‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ"šÃ‚¡Grec.aquaria.marine.reefs
Ã"šÃ‚¤ÃƒÂ©Ã"šÃ‚´ÃƒÂÃ"šÃ‚¡G2002-03-28 16:13:14 PST


Refering back to the original post - that clam isn't dead, by a long
shot, but it is fading fast. You need to get it in healthy water
(sorry to say but that tank water needs some work), crank up the
lighting and...

Tie the clam shut. This will sound strange but I've been keeping LOTS
of clams for years and years - even had a couple get to 9" so I had to
sell them because they got too big. When they get this gaping open
look you need to close them. Clam shells are like a spring - the
major muscle of the clam CLOSES the shell. The health of a clam can
be judged by how quickly and strongly they close their shell. When
the clam is injured or horribly stressed, it will start to lose the
strength to close its shell, which will cause more injury, stress,
etc. When a clam gets like this (in your picture) it will NOT live
unless you close it and let it rest for a bit. Do not tie it
completely shut, but leave the shell halves open about 1/4". I used
to place clams between two rocks, but sometimes a clam would manage to
wiggle lose and reopen. It is best to use cotton string (like butcher
string). You only have to keep them closed for a couple of weeks and
then you can cut the string and remove it. You will know that your
clam is getting healthier and is feeling better when it starts to
extend its mantle outside of the 1/4" crack you left between the shell
halfs. You'll be surprised how far it can extend its mantle. Leave
the clam alone until a couple of weeks have passed and the mantle is
fully extended and looks very healthy. In extreme cases where the
clam looked very bad, you might loosen the string so that you don't
allow the shell to reopen 100% in one shot. I have had a couple of
clams that I tied shut for a while, and when I reopened them their
inner mantles had lost much of their symbiotic algae. No worries -
within a couple of weeks they had colored in fully and were healthier
than ever. This really works! (As strange as it sounds) I found
clams to be extremely hardy and much more forgiving of bad tank
conditions than many other tank denizons as long as you kept the light
intensity up. Don't let them open up like this, however, or they'll
be dead within 48 hours (if that long). Sometimes clams would get
injured or sick for no reason that I could figure out - even when they
were in a perfect tank with several other clams that continued to look
super healthy. I would tie them closed, let them rest, and I had
close to 100% success rate - with clams that looked worse even than
yours.
 
This will kill your clam if you do this.
The clam will fight against the string to open its shell, much like it did to get out from being wedged between the rocks. OVer a very short time (days), this will weaken the clam considerably and will usually result in death.

Just my 0.02

Bill
 
I have never heard this before, but to me it sounds reasonable only for clams that are truly gaping, i.e. have obvious damage to the adductor muscle. Otherwise it might just stress the clam out even more.

I don't think it's a crazy idea, however.

Steve
 
So much is yet unknown it is difficult to dismiss even the seemingly ridiculous. Does not seem right to me though.
 
hmmm..i am not sure if that is ridiculous or not..i was talking with berry the other day...clamsdirect...he was telling me that once he had sand blown into one of his clam and it was gasping..all he did was carefully stuck a toothpick in between the shell to prevent it from closing and using a blower to blow the sand out of it mouth..i am not sure how the procedure is exactly..but you may try asking him about it..its funny but yet it may be true:D
 
Sure, He stuck a toothpick from keeping it from closing.... But to tie it with a rubberband to keep it from opening for weeks???

Big difference.:D
 
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