What's happening to my clams?

[gliebig]

I had a maxima and a derasa in my tank (125gal w/ 3x150 DE halides +2 VHO) for over a year. They were doing fine and growing like crazy. It seemed like over night, the mantles receeded into the shells. Within a day or two they were dead and my nassaroius snails cleaned them out. They didn't die at the same time, about 3 months apart from eachother. Sorry that I don't have any pictures. I didn't notice any snails or anything that would irritate them. It was strange.. my mother was remarking how good the derasa was looking on Friday and the next Monday, it was a goner.
The halides are about 2 months old, Ca 400, dkh 9, sg 1.024

Any ideas as to what would make a perfectly healthy looking clam , die so quickly?

 

[mbbuna]

you say the halides are 2 months old. do you meen the bulbs or you just got the halides?

if you just got the halides, what lighting did you have before?

 

[gliebig]

Oh, I've had halides since day 1. It's just the bulbs that are new. I replaced them with the same ones that I had before.

I've had a derasa in my little tank under PC's for 3 years. It is starting to outgrow the tank and I was just about to move it to the 125. Glad I didn't.

The only thing I can think of is that it was some kind of parasite that killed the maxima and that it took a while before it found the derasa. I admit though, I don't know anything about what things prey on clams. Do these thing usually die off if I keep the tank clam-free for a couple months?

-Greg

 

[reefkoi]

You know I talk ed to a guy that lost a bunch of clams, there was a parasitic flatworm, large like 6 inches and he would lose clams overnight, the insides were gone in the morning. He caught it at night and removed it from the tank. In all my clam research I had never heard of these, so you never know.

 

[gliebig]

Hmmm, maybe I'll have to break out the night vision goggles.