Clam not looking too good

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

I got a 3" maxima clam almost two months ago and it's been in my frag tank and has been looking great. In the past week or so I noticed that it hasn't been opening as much as it used to and the mantle is barely out. The foot is retracted way in also. Anyone have any ideas on what might be wrong with it?

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

Bump to hopefully save the life of a clam.

Reef UP · Oct 8, 2011

Where have you had (what's the placement)? When you pick it up are there any worms under it?

steve&mari · Oct 8, 2011

Good luck I just lost one had a year doin great one next to it is fine but sounds similar to one I lost. Has it been tipped over or any pest or fish nipping pics may help

Big steve

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

larryl · Oct 8, 2011

Plus one on the pics! Look really close for pests.

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

I think it's dead now. I can still see the mantle but it won't close now. It is slightly open and won't move at all now even when you touch it. I'm going to pull it from the tank. It was in my frag tank and I moved it to my display three days ago in hopes that it would improve in there but nothing. There are only a pair of clowns in the frag tank and they never bothered it. The only thing that I could find on it was some type of tube worm on the outside of the shell. This was my first clam and I'm not sure what went wrong with it, not sure if I should try another.

NanaReefer · Oct 8, 2011

Sorry for your loss...very sad :(

skinz78 · Oct 8, 2011

Sorry I completely missed this one. Did you check the clam for Pyramid snails?

Can you post your params, lighting, inverts and what you dose and how you add it?

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

I tested my water about a week ago.

Alk 8.06 dkh
Cal 443
Mag 1320
salinity .025
temp 78

My PO4 always comes up 0 on my salifert kit but I have some algae issues so I know that it's not 0. I run bio pellets and gfo. I didn't see any pyramid snails but there was some kind of tube worm on the shell. It was under LEDs in my frag tank. I use kalk in my top off water and manually dose mag.

skinz78 · Oct 8, 2011

Did it show any signs of pinched mantle?

What inverts do you have in the tank?

Tube worms don't usually bother clams, and I don't think elevated PO4 could have caused it.

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

Only inverts are hermits and snails. When the mantle was out it look good and healthy, it didn't look like any of the pics I've seen of pinched mantle. There isn't a ton of flow in the frag tank and I had it on sand, could that have caused anything issues? I was told that maximas like to be on rocks.

skinz78 · Oct 8, 2011

How deep was the tank? They don't necessarily need to be on the rocks. I have 4 Maxima's on the sandbed in my tank.

How big was the clam?

It sounds to me like it was just a fluke thing, I'm not hearing anything that really stands out to me. It is kinda hard to say without pic's of the clam a few days prior to it's death.

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

The clam was about 2 1/2-3". My frag tank is 8" deep. Is there a type of clam that is hardier than others or maybe try a larger clam next time? Thanks for the help by the way

skinz78 · Oct 8, 2011

Man nothing is screaming "hey I'm the reason" to me.

In a tank that shallow I would say the only other good one to try is a Crocea. All the others will be squirting water out of it every time they get startled. Maxima's can be touchy for sure and die for no appearant reason. Still they are the coolest of the clams IMHO.

gar732 · Oct 8, 2011

The next one will be going in my display. The only reason this one wasn't in there is that I wanted to reaquascape the tank but have just kept putting it off. I have about 50 sps frags and colonies that are hanging out in the frag tank awaiting the aquascape too. I hear you on the clam squirting water, I walked by a shallow tank at an lfs once and got hit by a good sized clam. I was surprised by how much water and how far it went.