TWallace
Well-known member
I've been keeping clams in my tank for about a year and a half. In that time, I never had one die until 2 months ago when my newest maxima died. I only had it about a month and a half and in that time it usually was gaping and never really looked fantastic. It was pretty small, around 2.5" and I attributed its death to not adapting well to my system and possibly needing food (I wasn't feeding it).
Then, about a week and a half later my other small maxima died. I had that one for about 5 months and it looked fine until the day it died. Again it was a small clam and I figured maybe it was a food issue.
But then a week or so later my favorite crocea died. I had this one for 15 months and it was always healthy and well beyond the size where some people say food is required (it was about 4"). It's the one that is in my avatar.
Now I start thinking maybe I introduced a predator. So I checked my clams for pyramidellid snails and found none. A couple days go by and my largest crocea (5") starts looking bad, kinda like pinched mantle, not expanding properly. I've read that most people do FW dips for pinched mantle and since my clams were dying, I thought nothing to lose. Well, it never recovered from the 20 minute FW dip and died a day later.
A couple days later my last crocea starts looking bad. Again I checked for pyramidellid snails and found none. It dies the next day.
Now I'm down to 1 clam, a derasa which is the first clam I bought. It's about 6-7". The mantle isn't expanding all the way and the inside of the shell is visible above the edge of the mantle at times. In desperation, I removed it from the tank and put it in my QT which was filled with newly mixed Instant Ocean. As a side note, my QT is running at all times with live rock, a couple snails, emerald crabs and a hermit. I do this to promote breeding of live food (copepods, amphipods, mysis shrimp) so that when I add a new fish to it, there's plenty of live food for them to eat. So, my QT is a very stable environment, as far as QTs go. Within half an hour of adding the derasa to the QT, it looks magnificent. Full expansion, and "happy as a clam" as they say. It's hours later now, and it still looks great.
My conclusion at this point is that there must be a contaminant in the water in the main system, like a heavy metal perhaps. Thing is, I have lots of corals and inverts in there and none of them have been dying or looking unhealthy. All my acros still have great polyp expansion and color. LPS and softies all look great, too. I have 5 shrimp, tons of snails and hermit crabs and I haven't seen any of them die.
Two days ago I started running carbon (I don't normally run it), but it didn't seem to help the clam. I've left it running anyway, and have changed out the carbon today. I'm not sure how often you're supposed to change it (I think 2-4 weeks?).
At this point I'm happy that I've apparently saved the clam, but I can't keep it in the main system. Luckily it's a derasa, so it should be ok with the PC lights in the QT for a while. Obviously a crocea or maxima wouldn't tolerate that for long.
Here are my parameters in the main system:
Alk 7.0 dKH
pH 8.19
Temp 80 F
Nitrates 0.25ppm
Magnesium 1230ppm
Calcium 395ppm
Weeks ago I started adding epsom salt to increase magnesium in an attempt to kill off remnants of bryopsis. When the clams started going south, I started doing frequent large water changes (50% every couple of days) in an attempt to remove the epsom salt from the water. I don't think the epsom salt had anything to do with it, though, now.
Here's a pic of the underside of the derasa I took today before moving it to the QT. There's a tiny snail in the "hinge" but I don't think it's a pyramidellid. I think it's a collonista that was just hiding from the light in the daytime. Pardon the large image size, but it's a tiny snail. I've included an astrea in the pic for comparison.
http://tom-wallace.com/images/reef/122007/derasa.jpg
A few months ago I fashioned a lid to prevent jumping fish. It's got a stainless steel frame, with aluminum window screen tied to it for a fish barrier. I have noticed some rush on parts of the stainless steel frame and am now worried that it's leaching bad metals into my tank. But still, I would have thought it would be more than clams dying if that was the case. I will look into alternatives to this lid, but I can't remove it now. I've got a few firefish, a fairy wrasse and a gold diamond goby, all of which are known to be jumpers.
Lighting on my tank is 2 x 250w 12k Reeflux (bulbs are about 2 months old) with 2 x 54w T5 actinic supplementation. I've also added a new 33g sump (custom made from a local craftsman) and a Euro-Reef RS100 skimmer at the same time. I was previously running skimmerless.
Then, about a week and a half later my other small maxima died. I had that one for about 5 months and it looked fine until the day it died. Again it was a small clam and I figured maybe it was a food issue.
But then a week or so later my favorite crocea died. I had this one for 15 months and it was always healthy and well beyond the size where some people say food is required (it was about 4"). It's the one that is in my avatar.
Now I start thinking maybe I introduced a predator. So I checked my clams for pyramidellid snails and found none. A couple days go by and my largest crocea (5") starts looking bad, kinda like pinched mantle, not expanding properly. I've read that most people do FW dips for pinched mantle and since my clams were dying, I thought nothing to lose. Well, it never recovered from the 20 minute FW dip and died a day later.
A couple days later my last crocea starts looking bad. Again I checked for pyramidellid snails and found none. It dies the next day.
Now I'm down to 1 clam, a derasa which is the first clam I bought. It's about 6-7". The mantle isn't expanding all the way and the inside of the shell is visible above the edge of the mantle at times. In desperation, I removed it from the tank and put it in my QT which was filled with newly mixed Instant Ocean. As a side note, my QT is running at all times with live rock, a couple snails, emerald crabs and a hermit. I do this to promote breeding of live food (copepods, amphipods, mysis shrimp) so that when I add a new fish to it, there's plenty of live food for them to eat. So, my QT is a very stable environment, as far as QTs go. Within half an hour of adding the derasa to the QT, it looks magnificent. Full expansion, and "happy as a clam" as they say. It's hours later now, and it still looks great.
My conclusion at this point is that there must be a contaminant in the water in the main system, like a heavy metal perhaps. Thing is, I have lots of corals and inverts in there and none of them have been dying or looking unhealthy. All my acros still have great polyp expansion and color. LPS and softies all look great, too. I have 5 shrimp, tons of snails and hermit crabs and I haven't seen any of them die.
Two days ago I started running carbon (I don't normally run it), but it didn't seem to help the clam. I've left it running anyway, and have changed out the carbon today. I'm not sure how often you're supposed to change it (I think 2-4 weeks?).
At this point I'm happy that I've apparently saved the clam, but I can't keep it in the main system. Luckily it's a derasa, so it should be ok with the PC lights in the QT for a while. Obviously a crocea or maxima wouldn't tolerate that for long.
Here are my parameters in the main system:
Alk 7.0 dKH
pH 8.19
Temp 80 F
Nitrates 0.25ppm
Magnesium 1230ppm
Calcium 395ppm
Weeks ago I started adding epsom salt to increase magnesium in an attempt to kill off remnants of bryopsis. When the clams started going south, I started doing frequent large water changes (50% every couple of days) in an attempt to remove the epsom salt from the water. I don't think the epsom salt had anything to do with it, though, now.
Here's a pic of the underside of the derasa I took today before moving it to the QT. There's a tiny snail in the "hinge" but I don't think it's a pyramidellid. I think it's a collonista that was just hiding from the light in the daytime. Pardon the large image size, but it's a tiny snail. I've included an astrea in the pic for comparison.
http://tom-wallace.com/images/reef/122007/derasa.jpg
A few months ago I fashioned a lid to prevent jumping fish. It's got a stainless steel frame, with aluminum window screen tied to it for a fish barrier. I have noticed some rush on parts of the stainless steel frame and am now worried that it's leaching bad metals into my tank. But still, I would have thought it would be more than clams dying if that was the case. I will look into alternatives to this lid, but I can't remove it now. I've got a few firefish, a fairy wrasse and a gold diamond goby, all of which are known to be jumpers.
Lighting on my tank is 2 x 250w 12k Reeflux (bulbs are about 2 months old) with 2 x 54w T5 actinic supplementation. I've also added a new 33g sump (custom made from a local craftsman) and a Euro-Reef RS100 skimmer at the same time. I was previously running skimmerless.
