Trouble with my crocea

L

Living Ocean

New member
Ok so I have had this crocea for about 3 weeks now and it has been doing great. Fully extending. Nice color. Everything normal. Nothing has been picking or nipping at it. I have a small clownfish and a strawberry basslet and neither of them nip at anything. The clam has always reacted to light or when fish swim over it.

Here is a before picture:

IMG_6972.jpg


And today:

IMG_7035.jpg


He is still reacting if I touch him but he just won't extend.

My params are not bad:

SG: 1.025
pH: 7.9
Alk: 11 dKH
Phosphate: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 12 ppm
Calc: 450 ppm

I have other corals and zoas in the tank that are all doing fine as well as my fish so I am just not sure what could be causing this?

Thanks for any help.
 
IMO it isn't looking so good..are those the only two fish you have?
The curled edges is what is giving me some concern. I have never seen mine do that in over two years of having them.

Also what type of lighting do you have in the tank they are pretty light dependant.
 
Those are the only fishes that I have. I have 150W HQI 15,000K XM bulb. I have the clam about half way up (I acclimated him from the bottom).

I kept another crocea for many many months with no problem until I put a bi-color angel fish in there which killed it. I have since removed that angel before I got this clam.

He was doing great all until today, seems weird.

Could temperature have anything to do with it? I have noticed my tank will swing from 82 degrees during the day down to about 78 at night.
 
do you have any other clams in the tank??

are you running a GFO???

are you running carbon??


looks to be a case of PM, how long has he been showing symptoms???
 
The first sign that I noticed anything was last night, it seemed to look a little strange but the lights were off so I didn't think much of it.

Then this morning it has pretty much maintained the same look as in the picture above.

I do not have any other clams in the tank. I am running both GFO and GAC and have for quite some time.

It does appear to be PM. I really only dose Kent Marine Liquid Reactor maybe once a week and just about 5mL for my 28 gal tank which is less than recommended. I also occaisonally dose a small about of iodide (1 mL) maybe once a week as well.
 
how are you running the GFO and GAC??? , reactors??? does one feed to the other???

how old is the AC??

i would be prepared to do the FWD ( ro/di, match tank temp) but first remove the GFO and replace with more AC and replace the AC in use ( if oldish ). over the years we have noticed a direct relationship between Fe and PM flare ups. not that the Fe cause the PM but rather causes a carrier that looks perfectly normal to exhibit symptoms.

what troubles me the most is how fast he turned, it usually starts out much slower and the symptom worsen over time.
 
Well since this is just a small tank I am running both of them inside of a HOB filter :). I will, however, remove the GFO and replace with new AC and replace the existing AC with new as well. The AC in there now is two weeks old.

From what I have read it looks like the FWD is my only option?
 
which was first in the HOB? ( searching for answers to the rapid acceleration of symptoms )

as a general rule, it's not recommended to actual mix different media in one filter.


because a FWD can be very stressful for the clam, in the past myself and other have had success with simply removing the Fe source and letting the symptoms subside. your case appears to be much further along than most, which puzzles me, as the symptoms only just appeared. usually i would recommend waiting a day or so but i think you're right, a dip ( possibly more, but only time will tell ) is going to be necessary.

fill a larger enough container to fully submerge the clam with RO/DI and try to match tank temperature. usually i would recommend floating the container in your tank but this probably wont work with your smaller tank. you don't need to be concerned with matching pH but you can try. the problem is that RO/Di is so aggressive it becomes very hard to keep the pH stable. place the clam in and either rock the container or use a turkey baster to gentle rinse over / in the clam for ~20 min. then return him to the tank.

as i said above this can be very stressful to the clam and can sometimes push the clam over the edge. unfortunately if left untreated the clam will die, so while there is a risk, doing nothing isn't an option.

good luck and please let us know how he makes out.
 
Well a brief update.

I had to go to work (I am working graveyard shift) and I did not have time to do a dip on my clam. I called my wife and she told me that my cleaner shrimp was just picking away at my clam and wouldn't stop. She said the clam was still reacting and closing up but my shrimp was just staying on top "picking" at the clam. I'm not sure if he was just picking off dead cells or actually trying to eat the dying clam (as I'm not there to see it)

Here is the picture she sent with her phone:

photo.jpg
 
try to cover the clam with a clear plastic container with some holes in it for flow, half a pop bottle works well.
 
Ok so I did the dip today. I matched the temp and I was able to match the pH also. I put him in there for about 23 minutes. I took him out and put him back in my tank and I really thought he was dead. Definitely in shock. After a while I did see movement and then a little more later.

Again, I had to leave for work so we'll see what happens for the next couple of days. Hopefully that helped.
 
PMD progress very slow and does not kill for months. Just to let you know that I know what I am talking about, back in early 2000 my tank was full of clams with PMD. I actually was the person first wrote about PMD and come up with solution for them which was fresh water dipping. If you do a search on this back in about 2002 on reefcentral.com and Reefs.org you can pull these two threads up. Also at the time I wrote on other board but mostly on these two main board.
Jan 2002 my tank was the feature tank of Advance Aquarist Magazine. The pictures of my tank showed my clams at the time with early PMD. I was battling this disease at the time when no one know about it. Here is a link to one of the picture I am talking about. The Blue Max was the one that got PMD in this picture. I actually saved him and cure him of the disease
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/1/aquarium_album/dscn3853.jpg/variant/medium

Anyway, you clam is toasted (most likely). I don't know what kill him but it was not PMD. Dipping him likely did him in. If you can keep the shrimp (and worms from eating him up he may have a chance) If your tank is large with a healthy sand bed you may just find empty shell in the morning.
 
Well I guess you were right. Came home this morning and the clam was a goner :(

So strange how it just happened so quickly. Was fine one day and then bad the next. Like you said, the dip most likely pushed him over the edge.

OrionN: Do you think that this clam would have survived had I just left it alone?
 
LO,
There is noway to tell for sure. You clam may look fine but I think it was not growing for a while. I am not sure what kill it but you want to make sure it does not have any Pyramids snails that is sapping it's juice and killing it. These parasitic snails just dispersed once the clam is dead so it is hard to tell now. IMO, parasitic snails got to be the most common cause of clam death in new clam keepers tank
 
oh boy here we go

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15553394#post15553394 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OrionN
PMD progress very slow and does not kill for months. Just to let you know that I know what I am talking about, back in early 2000 my tank was full of clams with PMD. I actually was the person first wrote about PMD and come up with solution for them which was fresh water dipping. If you do a search on this back in about 2002 on reefcentral.com and Reefs.org you can pull these two threads up. Also at the time I wrote on other board but mostly on these two main board.
Click to expand...

i looked for the posts but couldn't find them, could you please post a link??? i'd love to read them.

your findings differ completely to dozens of case here on RC as well as the professionals.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15553394#post15553394 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OrionN
Anyway, you clam is toasted (most likely
Click to expand...


the interest of the shrimp prior to the dip is a pretty good indication things are going downhill fast.


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15557554#post15557554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OrionN
LO,
There is noway to tell for sure. You clam may look fine but I think it was not growing for a while. I am not sure what kill it but you want to make sure it does not have any Pyramids snails that is sapping it's juice and killing it. These parasitic snails just dispersed once the clam is dead so it is hard to tell now. IMO, parasitic snails got to be the most common cause of clam death in new clam keepers tank
Click to expand...

the odd / troubling part is, while searching your posts i noticed that you were participating on the clam forum, in just about every thread but didn't post your concerns about the parasitic snail then. also you never said anything about your PM knowledge and advise against the FWD.

if you wanted to know whether the clam was growing, why wouldn't you just ask for a picture of the shell......
 
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