New Maxima not looking good.

[Butcher333]

I purchased this Maxima from BRA on the 27th of December. It seemed ok. It wasn’t opening much, but attributed it to all the movement at the LFS. I did wave my hand above it and it did react.
Alk 7.5
Cal. 450
Mag. 1370
PH 8.1 to 8.2
Nitrate reads 0’ish
Salinity 1.026
Temps 78-80
Lighting 400w Radium
Phosphate reads 0’ish although I have to clean glass about every 3 days.
For the first couple of weeks I kept it in the sand where the PAR was 180 to give it time to adjust before moving it to it’s spot on the rock work. It did not attach any thread and right itself until 3rd day. It never really opened up much and had a white area in the middle area of the mantle. It prefers not to extend the mantle towards the exhalent end. I moved it to its spot on a rock that receives 300 PAR of radium light. My Derasa is doing great and has grown about an inch of new shell in about 6 months. I was hoping the Maxima would go without a hitch. I have included photos because I think they can be pretty helpful. @OrionN, @skinz78, or .... Thanks

Healthy and happy Derasa.

Really bad photo but shows the growth of the Derasa.

 

[Macbalacano]

Deresa looks great, maxima not so much.

How often have you moved it? I wouldn't move it much more.

Have you tried having something under it so that it can attach?

Are you running carbon?

Params look good to me, but in my experience with clams, they do prefer some nitrates and phosphates in the water. They are definitely still filter feeders even those most of their food comes from the light.

 

[Butcher333]

Deresa looks great, maxima not so much.

How often have you moved it? I wouldn't move it much more.

Have you tried having something under it so that it can attach?

Are you running carbon?

Params look good to me, but in my experience with clams, they do prefer some nitrates and phosphates in the water. They are definitely still filter feeders even those most of their food comes from the light.

Thanks. The Derasa is what made me want more clams.

I’ve only moved it once. After a couple weeks in the sand @180 PAR and to give it some time to acclimate to my tank. I thought maybe getting it into its preferred PAR range might help it out as it couldn’t hurt at that point. I sat it on top of a rock and it attached before the next morning thankfully, as I had expected to have to pick it up after a bad fall.

I am not currently running carbon at the moment.

I have been dosing the tank with Oceanmagik 2 times a week for a couple weeks because even though everyone says you don’t have to feed them, my gut tells me some live food could help it heal and they are designed for it. Worst that could happen is pods are fed.

I’ve been using API to test phosphate and nitrate. Waiting for the Hanna phosphorus checkers to become available for a different reading than “no color”. I guess the Salifert test is best for nitrate but the photocell idea? Not sure yet.

I’m also moving my Alk to 8.5. Should be there by midnight.
A picture is really hard to take. It flinches even just because I stand in front of the tank.

 

[Macbalacano]

Thanks. The Derasa is what made me want more clams.

I’ve only moved it once. After a couple weeks in the sand @180 PAR and to give it some time to acclimate to my tank. I thought maybe getting it into its preferred PAR range might help it out as it couldn’t hurt at that point. I sat it on top of a rock and it attached before the next morning thankfully, as I had expected to have to pick it up after a bad fall.

I am not currently running carbon at the moment.

I have been dosing the tank with Oceanmagik 2 times a week for a couple weeks because even though everyone says you don’t have to feed them, my gut tells me some live food could help it heal and they are designed for it. Worst that could happen is pods are fed.

I’ve been using API to test phosphate and nitrate. Waiting for the Hanna phosphorus checkers to become available for a different reading than “no color”. I guess the Salifert test is best for nitrate but the photocell idea? Not sure yet.

I’m also moving my Alk to 8.5. Should be there by midnight.
A picture is really hard to take. It flinches even just because I stand in front of the tank.

This looks quite good. If you are saying now that it is attached and very responsive to light/movement, I'd say these are all very good signs.

The mantle does look a little pinched, but Maximas definitely do not extend their mantle as much as other clams I find.

Have a look at this thread, but I think running carbon might help based on what's written in other parts of the clam forum.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Pinched Mantle Disease in Giant Clams.

Introduction It was almost 20 years ago when I first introduced the Fresh Water Dip (FWD) protocol for the treatment of Pinched Mantle Disease (PMD). Over the years, many reefers altered the protocol somewhat but, on the whole, it still is the only tried and true way to treat PMD, a universally...

www.reef2reef.com

Clams

Talk about Tridacnid Clams and other Mollusks such as Crocea, Derasa, Maxima, Squamosa, and more.

www.reef2reef.com

Please keep us updated! I love clams too and I am always wanting to be able to hear about success stories as much as possible!

 

[DeniseAndy]

It does look a bit tight. They usually extend more, but if it is pulling in when you take shots, may not reflect the true extension. It also looks like a baby. They do like food. Not directly, but they are filter feeders. They do contain symbiodinium too.
My experience with maximas is do not move them much. Good you only had to twice. Stir up rock debris and it will love it.

 

[Butcher333]

Here are some updated photos. I stuck the phone under water to get these shots and have what I feel are pretty good photos from the incurrent and excurrent sides. It’s incurrent frillies have grown in more. I don’t feel like the opacity of the tissue has improved much and am curious if anybody thinks this might be a pathogen or something. I know I’m not responsible for bleaching it. I’m not sure if it could have been damage from shipping in too cold of weather? I just don’t know. I had fed some phyto and it opened up pretty nicely so I took advantage of the time to get some good photos. The cleare’ish tissue runs along the center area only.
Are there any additional thoughts from anyone who may have seen this sort of thing before? I would love to solve this issue. Could there be an internal parasite or something? @OrionN , @skinz78 , @PacificEastAquaculture , thanks all.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Is this as far as it comes out or was it closed because of you taking pictures? No obvious signs of issues from the pictures unless this is the most it opens. It appears to have some growth areas.

 

[Butcher333]

This is a little farther open than usual. It didn’t close while taking pics. I was careful not to shadow it and got lucky. I have never seen it extend beyond what is pictured. The mantle area is translucent down the middle to the point you can see it’s insides a little. Not the solid blue you see on a healthy Maxima. I’ve drawn a line to distinguish the normal looking flesh and the area that is translucent, the incurrent has seemed to be repaired some, as early on there were no frillies. But it never extends the mantle beyond this and I’m concerned I may be missing something. Do I perform a freshwater dip or other treatment? I just wish I knew what was the issue, so I could resolve it.

 

[DeniseAndy]

It does look a bit bleached, but may color up as ages. I am concerned it does not open more. Also as it does look a bit pinched. I have never done a freshwater dip with clams. I have dipped in an iodine solution (lugols). No pyramids snails? I am surprised if it was disease that it would have lasted this long. They just tend to die fast if disease. The snails can take time.

Just make sure no fish or inverts are bothering it and stir up the rock and sand sometimes. Look into the freshwater dip method and see if it is something you want to try.

Good luck! I hope this guy pulls through.

 

[xjiang7]

I have been going through similar situations with maxima to a point I am about to give up now. Can’t keep maxima in a tank where other tridacna species remain healthy

 

[Butcher333]

I guessed dead the next day!

Dead. I was right

Now I just hope my other clams don’t succumb to anything. Fingers crossed.
Running a ton of carbon now.

 

[hart24601]

Hopefully it's not a pathogen, the initial photo looked good so hopefully it was just a fluke. I lost 40 clams to one sick clam couple years ago, similar type of thing, the mantle got thin before death, even getting a hole in it on one clam. The illness slowly spread clam to clam....

 

[Butcher333]

Yeah, it sucks. I wish there was a lot more that could be diagnosed and treated for clams. I may have to go rogue and look into possible ways to treat clams with illness or disease. I really regret getting the maxima. Now I stare at and document my Derasa daily. I had a Duncan coral that went downhill after I got it and kept holding back waiting for it to come around and when it was looking like it might not live much longer, I said F it and dipped it in iodine for 15 minutes and placed it back in the tank. It immediately recovered and inflated and all the heads look great now. No regression. Now if I/we only had these same options for clams. Maybe in the future we’ll have learned to do more that just watch clams die. I‘m thinking some antibiotic administered through Phyto or in a bath

 

[hart24601]

I did try treat with a few medications in qt, I can’t remember all I tried but I know I did attempt cipro as a last ditch effort

 

[Butcher333]

Now my centerpiece Derasa has issues. I’ve posted elsewhere and not gotten any responses. I will post pic here and start a new thread. I’ve noticed people post a lot of pics of mantle retraction, but not close ups of the mantle. I showed a picture to a LFS owner who stated he thought it looked like pinched mantle even though what I showed him was discoloration on the mantle.

@skinz78 , and @OrionN seem to have a difference of opinion about what causes pinched mantle.
I’ve also read that Perkinsus can be in the clams and oysters we eat and is likely in the food we feed our fish as it comes from the ocean where many of them are infected. Can withstand freezing and live for a very long time in a tank. Should clam owners not feed their reef fish food which could be carrying Perkinsus? Is Perkinsus something that only affects Maxima and Crocea? Has anyone looked at the tissue under a microscope for surface Protozoa?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I hope you get some answers. I do not have one for you. Have you tried a scrape to see if something comes off to view under the scope?

 

[MartinM]

Hopefully it's not a pathogen, the initial photo looked good so hopefully it was just a fluke. I lost 40 clams to one sick clam couple years ago, similar type of thing, the mantle got thin before death, even getting a hole in it on one clam. The illness slowly spread clam to clam....

Did you find out what it was? Ever take a microscope to any of the tissue? Tried freshwater dip?

OP, sorry to hear about the clam. Did you ever FW dip it? I’ve had good luck with FW dips for pinched maximas. Also I’m surprised no one commented that was gaping in every photo, which is definitely a sign of stress from something.

 

[hart24601]

Did you find out what it was? Ever take a microscope to any of the tissue? Tried freshwater dip?

OP, sorry to hear about the clam. Did you ever FW dip it? I’ve had good luck with FW dips for pinched maximas. Also I’m surprised no one commented that was gaping in every photo, which is definitely a sign of stress from something.

I tried many dips, even isolation and different antibiotic treatment like cipro, literally everything I could remotely find. It was 40 clams afterall....

 

[MartinM]

Ouch, I feel for you did any survive?

 

[hart24601]

Of mine not a single on in the whole system survived.