First clam dead in 2 days

[h4wk]

Hi all, I was extremely happy to get my first clam 2 days ago but it looks like after a bit more than 24 hours it started gaping and I'm pretty sure it's no more.
It really bothers me because it's something I wanted ever since I started the hobby a year and half ago and I had the patience to wait, to get the good lights, the good parameters. Everything else I have has been growing fast and seem to be healthy.

All I can think of is that I saw the long spinned sea urchin passing by it and then a couple of hours later the gaping started. From what I could research that is unlikely to be the cause.

So what did I miss? Please make me wiser

5cm Maxima

 

[h4wk]

And this is an overview of my 55 gallons tank. Nothing aggressive towards a clam as far as I'm concerned

 

[Huff747]

I’m not an expert but I don’t see any new growth on the shell so it may have been starving for a while and perhaps the stress of the move was too much? Where did you get the clam from? Was it shipped or local? What kind of lights? I doubt the urchin was an issue, I’ve seen my tuxedo urchins take a direct line over my clam before to wherever they were going without issue.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I am also not a clam expert.

Was the foot healthy on arrival?
How was it acclimated?

 

[Lasse]

The torch (euphyllia spp) is to close. They kill clams with stinger tentacles I have seen this by my self

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I have kept clams for years. That clam was not in good shape when you received it. There is no white new growth on the shell. Next clam you need to see a strong reaction to light change and look for the white new shell growth ring. I would also not try another clam for a while Incase that on had an infection or a parasite. Your tank is looking good. I’m digging the rock structure.

 

[h4wk]

I’m not an expert but I don’t see any new growth on the shell so it may have been starving for a while and perhaps the stress of the move was too much? Where did you get the clam from? Was it shipped or local? What kind of lights? I doubt the urchin was an issue, I’ve seen my tuxedo urchins take a direct line over my clam before to wherever they were going without issue.

First time I tried an international shop, I currently regret it.

I am also not a clam expert.

Was the foot healthy on arrival?
How was it acclimated?

I regret not taking a better look. Acclimation was around 50 minutes of slowly adding water from the tank. Pretty standard I would assume. Should the foot be out and visible even if the clam is closed? I attached another picture

The torch (euphyllia spp) is to close. They kill clams with stinger tentacles I have seen this by my self

Sincerely Lasse

If that is the case I will be very disappointed at myself. But I believe it looks closer than it really is in the pictures. I spend quite a few hours observing and the tentacles seem to be far enough to never get close.

I have kept clams for years. That clam was not in good shape when you received it. There is no white new growth on the shell. Next clam you need to see a strong reaction to light change and look for the white new shell growth ring. I would also not try another clam for a while Incase that on had an infection or a parasite. Your tank is looking good. I’m digging the rock structure.

I guess it's hard to find a clam in a local shop in Copenhagen since I haven't seen one as long as I'm in the hobby to be able to personally look for these attributes and make my choice. I will take your advice and not try another one for now. (not that I have a choice, they are quite pricey [emoji4])

 

[reef lover]

Sorry for your loss...that clam looked bad from the start. If you do ship one in again do not drip acclimate. After being in the bag for so long ammonia builds up but isnt deadly until o2 hits the water when opening the bag. When i get things shipped i temp acclimate by floating ...i cut a small hole in the bag take a sample of water and tape it back up. I check salinity to my tank and most generally they are close enough to put the animal right in. I hope this helps and that this experience hasnt made you shy away from such a spectacular part of the reef....

 

[Lasse]

A s I live in Europe (Sweden) I have taken clams from international shops (or from Germany ) They use to look like yours without any large white parts on the shell. Never lost any of these. The only I have losed was hitted by my torch. This evil creature can develope stinger tentacles that easily can reach 10 - 15 cm from the corals normally tentacles. My torch is sorounded by stones so it can´t hit any living creature. You can see my clams in my build thread.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[hart24601]

I would echo the other comments that it flat out wasn’t healthy to start with. No white growth so it hasn’t been growing a while. Sometimes that is ok if a clam is healthy and stopped growing for a while during transport, but generally it’s a bad sign. I wouldn’t buy clam without clear growth as something has made it stop growing long enough for the shell to be discolored, which is generally weeks. When I have seen clams get stung personally it, for me at least, manifests as a section of the mantle that retracts for a while unless there is a whole lot of being stung, but generally looking at the coral or nem that is pretty obvious what happened.

Particularly in two days I would guess it was really close to death. Even if there was a fish or another critter bugging it the clam would have been closed up a few days or longer before gaping.

 

[Lasse]

I will not argue but in my case – a clam what have been with me for more than 5 months was moved into another spot in my aquaria. Safe distant from my torch – I thought. The day after I saw a sting polyp reaching the clam and in 24 hours it dies in a similar way that your picture show. The picture below shows a clam that have been with a local LFS for more than 5 months – when I picked it up - two months ago – no white edges that show growth. Now it starts to show small white edge in the shell. But it has not shown white edges for more than 6 months and still it is living and have start growing in a slow rate. Of my 4 deresa clams - no one have shown white edges when it arrives to me - The oldest is 24 months old with me and you can see below. Its around 18 cm now – was around 4 when I got it

​

And before anyone write that this is a sick clam - before I took this picture I disturb the clam in order to be able to show the tiny growth zones that was not with the clam when I got it

Two of my Deresa clams

​

I do not know if it is a stinger that killed your clam or not but IME - the lack of white edges is not always a sign of a bad clam - could probably be that but with the limited experiences I have of clams (6) it is not always that. None of my clams had any visual white edges when I got them and the only I have missed in this aquaria was my own fault. Placed too close to a torch.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[hart24601]

That does raise an interesting question since your clams all now have white growth why didn't they before and since they are clearly doing well in your system now based off the new growth, how long could they have survived in holding or wherever they were before coming to you in the environment where they were unable to grow?

It seems to indicate that no growth isn't a death sentence, but it does seem preferable to no growth since they now do have that white margin.

 

[Lasse]

IMO – all photosynthetic organism has a steady state there their energy input = energy consumption. It will not grow, and it will not use stored energy reserves – it is just their compensation point. In this stage they can survive for ever. From this point it can slowly grow (if there is more energy input than is needed for the basic needs) or slowly starve to death (if the need to take energy from the soft tissues for the basic needs) With clams – energy surplus will be used both to build the shell and soft tissue biomass – in a stage of energy deficit the clam can´t take energy from the shell – only from the soft tissues. If a clam is just over the compensation point it will slowly grow both by forming new shell and soft tissues, but you maybe do not see it in form of white edges. With clams – they can also get energy from eating organic particles. I agree with your others that a white edge is a sign of growing clams but not with that the sign of no white edge is a sign of a dying clam. It can be that, but it does not need to be that. I would rather look closely on the soft tissues – if they extend as they should and so on. It is the soft tissues that will be damaged if the clam really is starving. Most of the smaller clams I have seen from different vendors here in Europe have a very thin white edge or not a white edge at all.

With the blue one (my latest) I know that it has been at the LFS for at least 5 months with not showing any white edges but normal tissue.

With the OP picture - picture 3 shows a rather normal picture of a new clam with rather normal soft tissue (IMO) I have never seen a clam in that condition die in two days because of starvation. However I´m not a clam expert even if I have seen rather many.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Poriferabob]

I think Lasse brings up some interesting points. There obviously is a difference between just surviving and thriving. Lack of growth in my experience does usually mean less than ideal conditions, but not necessarily impending death. I would guess it may have been all of the above. I can also add, having worked in many aquarium shops the acclimation process for some animals in our industry is pitiful. Sometimes the animals fate has been made before they have a chance to make it to our tanks because of it.

 

[Phycodurus]

i find this comparable to growth rings on trees ... periods of slow growth is equatable to a steady, low-energy consumption state (dormancy in the case of trees). the tree isn’t considered unhealthy.

@Wbronson, are you referring to rushed acclimation or even just specimens being dropped into tank water with no acclimation?

 

[Poriferabob]

i find this comparable to growth rings on trees ... periods of slow growth is equatable to a steady, low-energy consumption state (dormancy in the case of trees). the tree isn’t considered unhealthy.

@Wbronson, are you referring to rushed acclimation or even just specimens being dropped into tank water with no acclimation?

I am. Many places temp and drop just like SPS. It goes without saying these animals are a little more involved than that. I always figured, if it has gills or a heart, you should probably acclimate slowly.

 

[hart24601]

i find this comparable to growth rings on trees ... periods of slow growth is equatable to a steady, low-energy consumption state (dormancy in the case of trees). the tree isn’t considered unhealthy.

@Wbronson, are you referring to rushed acclimation or even just specimens being dropped into tank water with no acclimation?

While I respect Lasse more than almost any other person on the site and acknowledge he is a much better reefer than I will ever be, with the state of unhealthy clams seemingly in the US I still caution against getting a clam with no white growth. I lost 40 clams (yep 40... I have seen lots of clams!!) the past two years due to bringing one in with no growth that passed something to my system. While no growth doesn't mean death 100% of the time growth is the greatest sign of a clam being healthy as you can see by his amazing ones white margin now and considering how expensive and potentially fickle they are I can't see why one wouldn't take the extra bit of caution.

 

[Lasse]

While I respect Lasse more than almost any other person on the site and acknowledge he is a much better reefer than I will ever be, with the state of unhealthy clams seemingly in the US I still caution against getting a clam with no white growth. I lost 40 clams (yep 40... I have seen lots of clams!!) the past two years due to bringing one in with no growth that passed something to my system. While no growth doesn't mean death 100% of the time growth is the greatest sign of a clam being healthy as you can see by his amazing ones white margin now and considering how expensive and potentially fickle they are I can't see why one wouldn't take the extra bit of caution.

I agree that it is better to buy a clam with shows growth if there is any to buy. The one we often see here in Scandinavia is mostly in the 4-5 cm range (a little bit more than 1") and they normally do not show up these white edges. In this case - I still think that a stinger from the torch is responsible. As you can see in my videos my GSP is more or less growing over the smalest of the deresa´s - it does not bother him/her, mushroms have been in contact with them - nema problema. But a stinger hit my first clam in this aquaria - and it was dead in 2 days in a similare way the the OP:s post show. In my latest video (not published yet) you can see a hermit that give my smallest clam a tuff time - but it looks like it manage that too. I have no idea why my clams is thriving as they do in this aquaria but the smallest of the deresa was only 4 cm a year agoo - when I got it - today 12 - 14 cm. I´m afraid every morning that´s something have gone wrong because I´m not a clam expert. I´m think I´m just lucky with these clams - for the moment - it will be no more clams - there is no place for that I want to get rid of my torch - but my wife says NO - she thinks that my torch is the center part of my aquaria.

Edit - it is published now in my thread. the hermit versus clam 3:42 in

Sincerely Lasse

 

[hart24601]

Wow 1" is tiny!

Great video, I can't believe the hermit leaves that Maxima alone but if it isn't broken don't try to fix it.

Tank looks amazing and those clams are fire. I can see why the wife enjoys the torch, but those tentacles look like they mean business!

 

[Lasse]

Correction - 4-5 cm is 1.5 - 2 " - but it still tiny

Sincerely Lasse