holeinone1972
Team RC Member
ReefDream, you are having way too much excitement lately. Great pic though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is painful to watch! Can I save my clams?
- Thread starter ReefDream
- Start date
Maximus, the anemone splits about once every one to two months (trying to get it down to one). From one, I have had five come out so far, and each new one has been taken by someone I know. I don't sell to the LFS. I haven't even been selling period because there aren't enough of them yet. When I do sell, I will sell direct to the end hobbiest. That way I can fetch better selling price and, just as importantly, I can be sure it goes to someone who has a clue. I am going to start selling in four to six months once the numbers have increased to six in tank.
Update: I am now acclimating my crocea clam to place in my 40 reef. I have about another hour of acclimation to go. He is definately looking a little bit stressed due to mior gaping, but I suspect that may be from 5 days in a bucket of antibiotics with no light on him. He has good mantle extension, up only, not really up and over his shell(I have seen him like this before in the tank for no apparent reason). He is responding quickly and well to shadow interruption and still spitting out water when I get him to close to the water line. I made the transfer to my acclimation bucket with as little exposure to air as possible. I was just trying to cut down on more stress. I think if he can take the change of tanks and all of the stress of the last 5 days he has a good chance of making it. I will post some pictures later when I have a chance and he is settled in the new tank. Lets hope this infection is cleared up and wish him luck 
ReefDream, How is your guy doing?
saltkreep, How are Eddie's clams doing?
ReefDream, How is your guy doing?
saltkreep, How are Eddie's clams doing?
CLAM UPDATE
Today, the clam looks a lot like he did earlier. It is not contracting violently. It is not gaping at all during the day and only slightly at night. Its mantle extension is better each day. It ALMOST looks perfect, but he still has a few signs that he is not 100% well:
1) Not quite as wide open as in the past.
2) Slime comes out of either vent sometimes.
3) Some parts of the gills are light grey, not pearl white like I would expect. This could be normal, but considering the clams that died had very dark gills, I have my doubts.
I noticed that small dark pellets are trapped in the slime. The pellets are usually no more than 1-3 mm in length and about the width of thick eyebrow hair. They look like fecal pellets. I saw these in the antibiotic treatment tank all over the place and I could not account for them until today when I noticed they are trapped in the slime. Unfortunately, I don't have a microscope, so I can't give any more detail. I don't know much about clam excrement, so maybe this is a normal emission. Are there any clam experts in the house?
At this point, I would give the clam a 75% chance of making it. My gut feeling is that the clam is fighting a winning battle against something still. I think the antibiotic gave him the edge to fight it off. My next update will be Thursday.
Today, the clam looks a lot like he did earlier. It is not contracting violently. It is not gaping at all during the day and only slightly at night. Its mantle extension is better each day. It ALMOST looks perfect, but he still has a few signs that he is not 100% well:
1) Not quite as wide open as in the past.
2) Slime comes out of either vent sometimes.
3) Some parts of the gills are light grey, not pearl white like I would expect. This could be normal, but considering the clams that died had very dark gills, I have my doubts.
I noticed that small dark pellets are trapped in the slime. The pellets are usually no more than 1-3 mm in length and about the width of thick eyebrow hair. They look like fecal pellets. I saw these in the antibiotic treatment tank all over the place and I could not account for them until today when I noticed they are trapped in the slime. Unfortunately, I don't have a microscope, so I can't give any more detail. I don't know much about clam excrement, so maybe this is a normal emission. Are there any clam experts in the house?
At this point, I would give the clam a 75% chance of making it. My gut feeling is that the clam is fighting a winning battle against something still. I think the antibiotic gave him the edge to fight it off. My next update will be Thursday.
The clam is in the 40g tank with 175w MH shining over it. A little less than it was use to(2x400w MH and 4x110VHO). It is just amazing the difference between looking down on the clam and looking at if front on. This "plain purple" clam is really a combo of light purple and green. It has flourescent green specks all through it and is trimmed in solid green. I have not looked down on this clam for welll over a year. I'd say it is coloring up very nicely for a $19 mistake crocea. What a surprise I had when I looked down on it. It continues to gape a bit in the tank but has really nice extension. It seems quite pleased since I fired up the new halide pendant over the tank. I will shoot some pictures tomorrow and post. I feel very confident on his chances of survival, crossing my fingers that the gaping will be short lived since it is minimal.
ReefDream, I did not notice the pellet stuff nor am I getting any type of sliming from this coral. My guess is that he was definately able to fight off the infection through the past 2 months of clam death in my tank and maybe did not even carry it. Who knows? He is looking GOOD
ReefDream, I did not notice the pellet stuff nor am I getting any type of sliming from this coral. My guess is that he was definately able to fight off the infection through the past 2 months of clam death in my tank and maybe did not even carry it. Who knows? He is looking GOOD
Barry, Funny thing about this particular crocea is that it rarely gapes. I have had it up higher in the tank and at an odd angle for viewing so it could have just been out of view over the past year or so. I guess I will realy find out now that it is in the 40g tank set up for optimal look down viewing.
<b><font size=+1>FINAL UPDATE</font></b>
I decided to post this update earlier because the clam has looked perfect the last three days. The clam has been out of the antibiotics now for over one week. Now, there is no coughing. There is no mucus. There are no signs that the clam was or is sick, period. This will be my final update unless the clam starts to show signs of sickness again.
As an aside, I hope others who are into clams will buy the pigeon doxycycline that I wrote about earlier. It is the right thing to do. Think of it: even the cheapest clam costs several times the medication plus the sadness of losing a clam (or potentially ALL of your clams)!
Here is the clam today (click to enlarge):
<center><a href="http://home.attbi.com/~domitron2/reefcentral/clams/crocea_072402.jpg"><img src="http://home.attbi.com/~domitron2/reefcentral/clams/crocea_sml_072402.jpg"></a></center>
I decided to post this update earlier because the clam has looked perfect the last three days. The clam has been out of the antibiotics now for over one week. Now, there is no coughing. There is no mucus. There are no signs that the clam was or is sick, period. This will be my final update unless the clam starts to show signs of sickness again.
As an aside, I hope others who are into clams will buy the pigeon doxycycline that I wrote about earlier. It is the right thing to do. Think of it: even the cheapest clam costs several times the medication plus the sadness of losing a clam (or potentially ALL of your clams)!
Here is the clam today (click to enlarge):
<center><a href="http://home.attbi.com/~domitron2/reefcentral/clams/crocea_072402.jpg"><img src="http://home.attbi.com/~domitron2/reefcentral/clams/crocea_sml_072402.jpg"></a></center>
jim norris
In Memoriam
ReefDream,
I want to say thanks for the effort and the updates. This my friend is/was a job well done!
Jim
I want to say thanks for the effort and the updates. This my friend is/was a job well done!
Jim
It is sold as "Bird Biotic" for $11 for 30 or $20 for 100 100mg caps at <a href="http://lambriarvet.com">Lambriar Animal Health Care</a> without a prescription for animals. 100 mg will treat about 4 gallons per day given the routine I used. So, for $20 you get enough to treat about 400 day-gallons from those guys.
I also found a place in Savannah, Georgia called <a href="http://www.globalpigeon.com/main.html">Global Pigeon Supplies</a> that sells a liquid preparation that is enough to treat 800 day-gallons for $22.95 + shipping. One ml of the liquid is 20% doxycycline by weight so I figure 200 mg. That means one ml of that liquid should be added to 8 gallons or so of water for the treatment bath (and, as above, the water has to be swapped out each day and re-treated to stay effective in medicating your clam).
In either case, I doubt the exact dosage is really that important. If you use twice the amount or half, it probably will work either way. But there are some guidelines that I'd follow:
1) Treat the clam in a separate bucket or tank. Antibiotics introduced in the main tank will kill off your biologically filter and crash your tank.
2) I treated my clam for 5 days. I would recommend you treat for AT LEAST 5 days. Even a week or more is not out of the question. Antibiotics do not work well on a "dip" basis. And the clam very well could look perfectly fine after a day or two. DON'T STOP THE TREATMENT PREMATURELY! If you stop the treatment fast, you greatly reduce your chances of the clam being cleared of the infection sufficiently to survive.
2) Treat the clam in darkness or very low light, and provide a phytoplankton food source each day. This is because the tetracycline family of antibiotics break down in bright light, and your clam will need some form of food to get well. <b>Use vinyl tubing and an air pump to keep bubbles rising and moving the water around (use a powerhead if the tank is large enough but not in a few gallons as the temperature can go too high). Use a small heater to keep the water at normal tank temperatures.</b>
3) Don't introduce lots of calcium structures into the treatment tank. I would not, for example, coat the entire bottom with an inch of crushed coral. Keep the crushed coral in a small bowl if you need it to place the clam. This is because doxycycline binds weakly to calcium, and I can imagine that lots of calcium carbonate might bring up the calcium ion concentration in the water very slightly.
4) Change the water and the medication out each day. I would recommend you get the water from the main tank rather than make it fresh. Freshly-made saltwater tends to stress stuff out, and you don't want your clam to be more stressed than it already is.
5) When the clam is put back into the tank, introduce as little as possible water from the treatment tank into the main tank. Again, this antibiotic is poison to the bacteria responsible for your tank's biological filtration.
I hope this helps folks!
I also found a place in Savannah, Georgia called <a href="http://www.globalpigeon.com/main.html">Global Pigeon Supplies</a> that sells a liquid preparation that is enough to treat 800 day-gallons for $22.95 + shipping. One ml of the liquid is 20% doxycycline by weight so I figure 200 mg. That means one ml of that liquid should be added to 8 gallons or so of water for the treatment bath (and, as above, the water has to be swapped out each day and re-treated to stay effective in medicating your clam).
In either case, I doubt the exact dosage is really that important. If you use twice the amount or half, it probably will work either way. But there are some guidelines that I'd follow:
1) Treat the clam in a separate bucket or tank. Antibiotics introduced in the main tank will kill off your biologically filter and crash your tank.
2) I treated my clam for 5 days. I would recommend you treat for AT LEAST 5 days. Even a week or more is not out of the question. Antibiotics do not work well on a "dip" basis. And the clam very well could look perfectly fine after a day or two. DON'T STOP THE TREATMENT PREMATURELY! If you stop the treatment fast, you greatly reduce your chances of the clam being cleared of the infection sufficiently to survive.
2) Treat the clam in darkness or very low light, and provide a phytoplankton food source each day. This is because the tetracycline family of antibiotics break down in bright light, and your clam will need some form of food to get well. <b>Use vinyl tubing and an air pump to keep bubbles rising and moving the water around (use a powerhead if the tank is large enough but not in a few gallons as the temperature can go too high). Use a small heater to keep the water at normal tank temperatures.</b>
3) Don't introduce lots of calcium structures into the treatment tank. I would not, for example, coat the entire bottom with an inch of crushed coral. Keep the crushed coral in a small bowl if you need it to place the clam. This is because doxycycline binds weakly to calcium, and I can imagine that lots of calcium carbonate might bring up the calcium ion concentration in the water very slightly.
4) Change the water and the medication out each day. I would recommend you get the water from the main tank rather than make it fresh. Freshly-made saltwater tends to stress stuff out, and you don't want your clam to be more stressed than it already is.
5) When the clam is put back into the tank, introduce as little as possible water from the treatment tank into the main tank. Again, this antibiotic is poison to the bacteria responsible for your tank's biological filtration.
I hope this helps folks!
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