Hello,
I have a crocea clam that has been the centerpeice of my aqaurium since I got it about six months ago. It has always been healthy and was completly open almost all day. I have finally stablelized all of my tank parameters after a long battle with nitrates. Since my nitrates have been below 5ppm my clam has not opened fully and is starting to lose some color. I see little spots of lost color developing more everyday. My lights are also past due to be replaced. Any thoughts on what could be happening??
maybe its because you won your nitrate battle. nah that shouldnt be it, in know you said your parameters are in check but what are your parameters. im interested to know what you test for.
Ok.. I believe we might be on to something. First off my tank temp has been higher than ever due to the summer heat tank temp ranges from 78.3 in the morning to a high of 83.5 after 8 hours of light. It used to only get to around 81 degrees. I don't think that is enough to cause this but i'm no clam expert. Tank parameters are as follows:
Alk 7 PH 8.2 Nitrate less than 5ppm Phosphate 0 (but I have noticed a small outbreak of green hair algae since I added live rock so the phosphate could be used up in the algae)
Calcium 480 ( last week I added too much buffer and it precipitated took three days to get PH back to normal)
The lights are about 18 months old and will be replaced next week. I will also be adding a fuge in about 2 weeks. The funny thing is that my other two clams are as happy as can be. This leads me to belive that it is the heat due to fact that the clam that is affected is the one closest to the lights and therefore in somewhat warmer water?
could be due to the heat, also check your amonia levels since you just added new live rock. also because of the live rock, check your tank at nite to see if any new hitch hickers are bothering your clam.
my clams have seen temperature higher than what you have, but i understand that shippers find clams the most fragile to transport in the hot season. have you inspected your clams for parasites?
I have not seen any parasites on my clam that I know of. I have looked to see if anything has been bothering it and the only thing that touches it is a few hermits from time to time. If I were to see some parasites what would they look like? I will check AM levels right now although I would think my other clams would also be affected. Be back with results soon.
check at night time also. most common is these tiny snails. if you can pick up the clam, check the bottom. certain bristleworms can get into the clam from the bottom. make sure your clam is not attacked by algae. if algae gets foothold on the inside side of shell under the mantle, the clam will be in big trouble.
I have seen bristleworms that came on one of my new pieces of rock but it looked just like the kind that everyone has said were harmless. AM is at O but this is the only test kit that is not Salifert. The test kit is from Aquarium Pharmeceuticals. This very weird!! My clam that has made it through all of my mistakes is not doing well but my monti-caps that I almost trashed are doing awsome. My green monti that totally bleached out and started to cover in coraline is now starting to get its color back and combine with the red monti next to it. If I had a choice i'd pick the clam. I guess I will plan on a water change tomorrow.
I will inspect the clam tomorrow when I do the water change. I might also move the clam to a lower point in my tank to see if that helps. Can't wait to get my new lights! i went with 14000K hamiltons. LFS said they might be in by this weekend.
Thanks for all the help everyone. Hopefully things will get better.
Mogul 3 x175watt with four 65 watt power compacts. I was also thinking about adding my old VHOs to the mix. I could run 4 X 110watt VHO for two hours before the MH and two hours after MH. This would allow me to cut down on total time my MH were on and provide a better dawn to dusk effect. Just a thought
I would consider hyposalinity or freshwater dip. I also might put this clam in a small ten gallon tank for a while to see if it is being botherd by something or if it is just water problems. I have a Coralife 65watt power compact unit that would provide plenty of light.
USA 
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