hello fellow reefers i am kinda at a loss here. I have a 90 gallon mixed reef with sps some softies and lps and untill this morning 2 maxima clams. last night when i went to bed everything was great and this morning when lights come on one of my clams was completly bare. i have had them for almost a year and thay have been doing great. both were ora and both have been growing and in good health so i know that it was not a health issue besides it comletely dissapered over night. my livestock is at least (i thought) reef safe. i have blue tang 4in, naso 4in, pair pink skunks, pair of oceolaris clowns, lawnmower blenny any thoughts on this would be greatly appriciated. the only thing i can think of is that the skunks tried to host in one and ripped it and that caused a feeding response from my other fish. the only reason i say that is because tonight i saw one of the skunks(male) trying to host in the other clam so i moved it to the other side of the tank were the other pair is so they wont go over there. let me know what you think thanks and hope to figure out this very depressing mistery
what ate my maxima clam????
- Thread starter adambirk
- Start date
i am sorry i forgot one other fish that i have is a one spot foxface which i have been told may nip at corals but are safe with clams. i have had this fish the longest going on to years and never seen him pick at anything so i dont (hope) think it was him but you never know.
i only have one nassarious snail that a freind gave me a long time ago and i only see it about once every other month that is why i never got any more of them. as for the pyramid snails i doubt that i have many if any in my tank. i watch it almost as much at night with a flashlight (more cool stuff at night) as i do during the day and have never seen one at all as for inverts i have 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp and a couple of hitchhiker crabs that i am not sure of what they are they are small have hairy light tanish red and have hairy legs never see them out in the day only at night and i have never even seen them come out of the rock all the way so i doubt that it was them. and as i said before i know that it was not sick because it was doing absolutly awsome yesterday just like it did every day so dont know but thanks for the suggestion
lovethereefer25
New member
I had the same thing happen with the same exact clam about 2 weeks ago. I have no idea what it could have been. Definitely upsetting seeing how it was my first clam and everything seemed to be going fine
RichConley
New member
Clams don't really show any stress. They can look fine and then be gone the next day. Chances are, its been dying for a while
i know that it was not dying and was health because it has been growing like i said it was from ora and when i got it it was maybe 1.5 to 2 inches and it has grown probably .5 to .75 inches in the last 6 to 8 months. unless they can grow and die at the same time my guess is it was eaten but like i said didnt see any one eat it so who knows might have been somthing else. also i thought that when clams showed stress they would gape or not expose they manltle all the way for days at a time. which mine did none of these things. oh well just sucks to lose something after you have had it for a while and it has been doing good with good growth for no reason. would have been ok with it if caught a fish eating it because at least that way i would know i have a clam eaten sob and could get rid of it. thanks for all the ideas and help
Peter Eichler
New member
You're overthinking this IMO. The clam probably died and then scavengers took care of the remains like they're supposed to.
Peter Eichler
New member
Your clam was dead already. Just want to clear that up since bristle worms already have a bad wrap for no good reason.
wetWolger
New member
QFT.....my guess is that your clams have not been happy with the tank conditions. And when they die, they literally are gone over night. The flesh of the clam degrades AMAZINGLY FAST. In fact, I bet if you did a water test as soon as you noticed he would be gone, you might even see a bit of ammonia from the clam death. I really can not emphasize how fast they degrade.
Also note, a year is about how long it takes for a clam to suffer with poor lighting, or other conditions that are _almost_ good enough, but not quite. IME at least
tank conditions are as follows amonia and nitrite are 0 nitrate is less than 5ppm always calcium is 450 to 470 salifert, alkalinity is 3.66 or 10.2 dkh, ph is 8.3 during the day and 8.1 at night, water temp is 78.5 during day and 78 at night. and as far as lighting goes i have the best combo i and other reefers have found i have 2 250 watt metalhalides with sps 10k bulbs supplemented by 48 inch 2 54watt truatinic bulbs. and as stated before how can a clam be growing for almost a year and then as you stated not happy with tank conditions and dieing for a year. also as i said before i have two and there placment in my tank was within 8 inches of each other and the other one is doing great. that is why i thought that it might have been an injury or fish eating. my water quality is spot on and always is i check every week and always do my routine matinence ie waterchanges and ect. i have half a dozen or so sps colonies that are experiancing great growth along with all my lps and zoes actually the only thing in my tank that has slowed its groth is the 2 different types of xenia that i have and i attribute that to the lack of nutrients in the system (phospate, nitrate) so other than water quality isues which i am fairly confident it was not then i am still at a loss like said earlier maybe i am just over thinking it and i know clams do just die. i guess the whole point of this thread was to find out if anyone has ever seen any fish that i described above take out a clam because i plan on replacing this clam with another maxima (blue) but this time i am going to get a fairly large one and before spending the 100 or so dollars i want to make sure i am not sentencing this clam to a death by a clam loving fish. thank you everyone for all of your help and ideas on this and any more are greatly appriciated. it is great to be able to go on this site and talk to people about problems and get there feedback expecialy where i live because i am probablly the only one in a 50 mile radius with a reef thank (or any saltwater tank for that matter) so dont ever have any one to bounce ideas off around here.
Peter Eichler
New member
Your other clam is fine, right?
Do you know how to recognize a pinched mantle?
I hate to say this, but clams do this. I've had numerous over the years. I've even had some die out of the blue that I had been keeping for 3 years. There are a lot of theories out there about bacteria, protozoas, etc that are killing clams. I don't know how to explain it, but I have had the same thing happen to me before. I think clams are probably some of the most finicky creatures we keep. They can do so well for so long and then all of a sudden.....
I hate to say this, but clams do this. I've had numerous over the years. I've even had some die out of the blue that I had been keeping for 3 years. There are a lot of theories out there about bacteria, protozoas, etc that are killing clams. I don't know how to explain it, but I have had the same thing happen to me before. I think clams are probably some of the most finicky creatures we keep. They can do so well for so long and then all of a sudden.....
thanks again for all the great help and yes i do know how to recognized a pinched matel why do you ask?
Peter Eichler
New member
You're probably not going to come up with any solid explanation. I say wait a few weeks and if the other clam is still doing well go ahead and get yourself another.
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