Perkinsus and clams

[Butcher333]

I was wondering if anyone has considered fish food as a possible source of clam disease?
Perkinsus is common in oysters and there is no cure. The oysters don’t pose health risks to people and we all likely eat oysters infected with it. They harvest the oysters before they perish from the disease. I see oyster as a main ingredient in fish foods and DIY recipes also.
Perkinsus is not affected by the freezing process either. I’m making this post to open the conversation as well as alert anyone unaware of this fact. I no longer feed my fish any foods with clam or oyster to spare my clams from this risk. @ReefSquad . @PacificEastAquaculture . @jda . @OrionN . @skinz78

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I was wondering if anyone has considered fish food as a possible source of clam disease?
Perkinsus is common in oysters and there is no cure. The oysters don’t pose health risks to people and we all likely eat oysters infected with it. They harvest the oysters before they perish from the disease. I see oyster as a main ingredient in fish foods and DIY recipes also.
Perkinsus is not affected by the freezing process either. I’m making this post to open the conversation as well as alert anyone unaware of this fact. I no longer feed my fish any foods with clam or oyster to spare my clams from this risk. @ReefSquad . @PacificEastAquaculture . @jda . @OrionN . @skinz78

I don't feed out any fresh seafoods for similar worries (though I love sashimi myself!). I didn't realize that Perkinsus wasn't affected by freezing though.

Back in the 1980's, Gaffkemia infections were found in giant Pacific octopus in a public aquarium that were fed live east coast lobster...similar case where the Gaffkemia didn't have any human health impact, so it was pretty much ignored.

Jay

 

[MartinM]

This is a good point. I use Reed Mariculture foods nearly exclusively, including Oyster Feast - and oysters contain a whole host of parasites, not just Perkinsus. I’ll contact them about this.

For my carpets, I always feed fresh seafood :oops: I think I’ll remove shellfish from their diet, since there are also clams in the system. I don’t have fish, however, so I’m not worried about that.

 

[jda]

The sentiment the last time that I heard was that healthy clams can fight off the protozoan, but stressed out ones end up dying. In the case with Tahitian Maximas, when collected and transported, stored and shipped in water this was not really an issue. The same clams suffer from from the protozoan when collected harshly and then transported dry after collection. The stress weakened them where they could not fight it off.

It seems that being able to live with perkinsus is a necessity for a clam and that strong ones can handle it. I have had rescue Tahitians die in my tanks at the 6-9 month mark and the other (healthy) clams survived.

My guess... and this is just a guess... is that if you have a clam die after feeding some food with a oyster, then the clam was in a downfall anyway.