What are clams most sensitive to?

[SINNERMF]

Well I am starting to contemplate tearing down my tank..... Came home from work today, and found one of my Maximas and my big Derasa dead!!!!!!! I just target fed my little clams last night and fed the rest of the system phyto. The only thing I could come up w/ was about a week or so the Cleaner Shrimp I had was picking on my Derasa and it aoppeared that the mantle was injured. Any clues as to what could have happened???

Thanks for your time,
Mike

 

[Zoalander]

I know Clams are very sensetive to change in PH. What do you tank parameters look like, lighting, stuff like that. If the cleaner shrimp was picking on your clam last week then it may have starting going downhill then and the cleaner shrimp was just doing it's job. The only way a cleaner shrimp can hurt a clam is by stressing ti and not letting it open nicely.

 

[Omar H]

Many things can stress a clam, but we would need more info on your setup before making any comments.

What are your...

tank size
water parameter (calcium, alk, Ph, salinity, etc)
Tankmates
Location of clam
How long you had them
Lights
Any ovbious problems before their death (bleaching, gaping, closed all the time, unresponsive to movement, etc.)

Omar

 

[Charlie Davidson]

I doubt seriously that the cleaner shrimp hurt your clam, I once had a clownfish bite big chumks out of mine. 2 years later, It is still here and 8"s. Most likely, (no one wants to hear this) water quality.

 

[cristhiam]

Maybe you taget feed too much? I have never target feed my clams, just add it to the tank. I've read that can clog the gills. Just a thought

 

[SINNERMF]

Well the Derasa is toast and both of my Maximas are barely still alive. The shell is open and the mantle is retracted but they are both still alive, the guy at my LFS said to do a water change so thats what I am about to do. I had a water test done and the only thing that was off was there was a little amonia.

 

[Omar H]

a little amonia!

In a stable tank there should be no ammonia. nitrates I can understand, but ammonia means that either you don`t have a fully functioning biological process established or something just died and is polluting the tank beyond the nitrifying`s bacteria capacity.

Doublecheck what you're doing. Also, we still don`t know what were the water parameters. What was tested and what were the actual results?

sorry to hear about your derasa.

Omar

 

[SINNERMF]

Derasa died, had my water tested. Either something was off in what I added to the tank or the Derasa caused some amonia to appear. I did not have a water test done until after the clam died. Everything check out and was ok except the amonia the amonia that was present and the guy at the LFS said that it was so low that it should not have killed things off. As for the actual results, they were not written down, so I don't have them. They check out according to the charts that the guy had. So I did my water change and thats the end of my story.

 

[captdan]

watch out for pyramid snails. shine a flashlight on it at night to find them.

 

[Electrobes]

Hmm as usual it could have been a bunch of things, but to have a couple of clams die that fast.. I am thinking some toxin in the water possibly? I would definitely carry out doing water changes for a bit.

If he got his water tested after his clams died, then a slight ammonia spike wouldn't be unusual. But I will say that most LFS do not use very accurate testing supplies, so I would consider buying more accurate test kits and test for yourself.

I don't think pyramid snails kill that fast without being noticeable. It would take a great number to kill that many clams, especially that size.

Shrimps in general are listed as a caution to keep with clams, though it is rare (IME) to see a shrimp annoy one so bad to kill it.

How did the clams look the night before they died? I mean were they retracted at all before hand during the day and night? Or did they look normal and then just died the next day without warning?