Has anyone brought a clam back from the brink?

[JoJosReef]

New clam in the tank, less than 2 weeks. Came back to the office on Monday after leaving the clam looking more or less normal on Friday. Clam looked like it was dying of starvation--no new shell growth, tucked in, etc:

Today, I noticed that the tailspot blenny was harassing the clam, and it was trying to close up and get away from the blenny, but doesn't look like it is able to close anymore (it was able to open and close yesterday).

For reference, this is what it looked like when it arrived from AquaSD 2 less than 2 weeks ago:
Side A:

Side B:

Drop acclimated for 45 min as per Pac E Aqua video:

In tank:

Given that it looks like the culprit MAY be the tailspot blenny nipping it, I set up a last-ditch-effort pop-up triage clinic:

I have 2 LEDs on it right now. It is still "breathing", and I won't pull it until it stops. I'm not kidding myself, here. It looks like <1% chance this clam is going to pull through.

Just wanted to know if anyone has been able to nurse a clam back from the state this one is currently in. @OrionN (not that you'd have one looking this bad!)?

FYI, parameters:
ALK: ~7 (constantly dosing AFR all day/night)
Ca: ~480
Mg: ~close to 1600
NO3: >0, <1
PO4: 0.05
Sal: 1.025sg

 

[shakacuz]

that clam is a goner. the last two pictures show 0 hope.
no3, and alk are likely your culprit outside of the blenny.

 

[JoJosReef]

that clam is a goner. that last picture shows 0 hope.
no3, and alk are likely your culprit outside of the blenny.

Yes, he's gone. I think the jostling around to get him in the container put the final nail in the coffin--he stopped breathing shortly after. I didn't notice the blenny going for him till yesterday.

I was just curious if anyone HAS been able to nurse a clam back when it's gone downhill.

 

[shakacuz]

I was just curious if anyone HAS been able to nurse a clam back when it's gone downhill.

to bring it back from that level, unlikely. PMD might be the only thing we can save clams from

 

[Tcook]

No hope. That blenny would be on top of a bowl of blue buffalo in my house. Beautiful derasa. That light band at the edge of the shell is not what I would call any recent growth. IMO this clam likely was near the end of it’s reserves and tipped over the point of no return by the blenny. As @minus9 has mentioned several times they look great up to the point when they don’t. If the blenny wasn’t there then it would likely have recovered in you tank as everything looks like it is thriving. Mag a bit high. Do you dose that? Anyway, that is my take. Maybe it was just 100% due to the blenny.

 

[JoJosReef]

No hope. That blenny would be on top of a bowl of blue buffalo in my house. Beautiful derasa.

LOL! Yeah, I can see that. The blenny is a one of my favorites, though. I'll just have to go without clams in this tank, it seems. I had a crocea once upon a time and the blenny left it completely alone. No idea why it decided the derasa looked like chowder.

That light band at the edge of the shell is not what I would call any recent growth. IMO this clam likely was near the end of it’s reserves and tipped over the point of no return by the blenny. As @minus9 has mentioned several times they look great up to the point when they don’t. If the blenny wasn’t there then it would likely have recovered in you tank as everything looks like it is thriving.

It was one of those one-eyebrow-raised moments when I took the clam out of the shipping bag. The white band on one side had me wondering if it was growing well, but the other side had me really wondering. It's a shame, because I've gotten great corals and a good crocea from @AquaSD , but you're right. It's my understanding that it would take a bit longer than 2 weeks for a healthy clam to starve. I mentioned on my build thread update on the clam, I don't know if the blenny started picking on the clam to cause it's demise, or if the blenny started picking on the clam once it was already going downhill.

Mag a bit high. Do you dose that? Anyway, that is my take. Maybe it was just 100% due to the blenny.

Mag has always been high since I started the tank. It's come down a bit since I switched from HW to Fritz blue box a while back, but it still stays up there. I've been skeptical about the Red Sea kit, though. I dose AFR, and the corals seem to eat it up faster than I can dose it--currently dosing 25mL/day of AFR in this 40gal tank.

 

[minus9]

N and P seen low to me, but I don’t think parameters were an issue here. Most likely the clam was tilted to one side in the store and was only receiving light from one direction, which is why the sides are off from each other.
I’ve witnessed a few clams die recently that otherwise should be fine and have plenty of light, nutrients, etc but just have gone downhill in a matter of days. I’m thinking a pathogen or virus is the issue in this cases.