Anyone ever see clams do this before?

[skinz78]

Lately I have been noticing on some of my clams little spots on the mantle that look like the zoax is gone. This particular clam has had some Pyramid snails on it recently and I have been removing them, I am wondering if the spots are from the snails sucking the zoax out of the clam? Anyone else seen this before?

 

[CJO]

I haven't seen that before but are you sure that it's new? It looks like you have some similar spots in other areas of the clam's mantle. If it was the snails, I would think that the spots would be larger or joined together.

CJ

 

[skinz78]

The spots have been there for a while, seeing them made me find the snails. They seem to be right where the snails would be attacking the clam.

 

[Rockfish]

Lately I have been noticing on some of my clams little spots on the mantle that look like the zoax is gone. This particular clam has had some Pyramid snails on it recently and I have been removing them, I am wondering if the spots are from the snails sucking the zoax out of the clam? Anyone else seen this before?

perfectly normal coloration of the mantle....you're good

 

[skinz78]

The small pencil lead sized bleach spots are good?

 

[Paul_N]

None of my maxima or dersa have ever had those. Never really saw anything like that.

 

[skinz78]

Neither have I Paul, and I have had lots and lots of clams over the years.

 

[Rockfish]

The small pencil lead sized bleach spots are good?

that's not bleaching.....a clam that bleaches will either start from around the rim or the intake siphon.....I have several clams and more than one has has some color changes in their mantles before.....all of which are happy as well.....clams.....doing fine and growing no bleaching at all

 

[skinz78]

I guess we'll just got it loss of color spots then.

 

[Rockfish]

I guess we'll just got it loss of color spots then.

trust me....been keeping clams for 15+ years.... THIS is what bleaching looks like....

 

[skinz78]

As have I and I know what it looks like all too well. I also know when a clam that looked perfect 2 months ago all the sudden has mysterious little spots of color loss that something is up.

Here are a few pic's of the clam back when I acquired it and you can clearly see that the mantle didn't have the little spots on it.

 

[Rockfish]

lighting?? clam distance from lights?? bulb Kelvin rating? how old is the bulb(s)

 

[skinz78]

Clam is on the sandbed, 24" away from my 6 bulb T5 setup. 4 of the bulbs are overdriven by 15 percent. Bulbs are probably 6 months old now. I am not positive of the exact K, there are 3 420nm and 2 12K, and the one I am not sure but I think it is a 10K lettering got wiped off in a cleaning. I also have 2 actinic stunner strips that are about 2 months old. Over all I get about a 14K look out of the whole setup. I am not thinking it is bulb life as I have almost all of my clams in the bottom 1/3 of the tank and if I try to move them any higher they just jump off the rocks back to the sand. I also have SPS growing well down there.

As I stated in my OP, this particular clam had quite a few Pyramid snails on it and I am wondering if the spots are from them sucking the fluids from the mantle. The location of the spots definitely coincides with where the snails would have been attacking the mantle underneath.

As I stated I have had lots of clams, easily over 100 over many years, I have been lucky enough to never have a bad Pyramid snail outbreak until recently so I really don't know first hand what kind of damage "besides death" they can do when left unchecked.

 

[Paul_N]

Just keep an eye on it and make sure they don't get any worse. If they are from the snails and you got them all then you shouldn't get any more spots. But if it continues then the clam is basically releasing the zooxanthellae and that is not good. Usually the only time you see white or pale spots in clams is where the light is not getting to that part of the mantle like where it overlaps. But for the clam to be releasing it itself then that is not usually a good sign. Hopefully it's the first scenario.