Clam on the Move

[NickK]

I have a 4" Maxima that has been on the rock work for the past 3 months and has looked healthy. For no known reason, a couple days ago he released his byssal threads and jumped to the bottom of my tank. I placed him back on the rocks and he jumped off again, so I placed him in a different spot and he jumped again. He still looks healthy, but I'm guessing somthing's up. Is this normal? Why would he move like this? I'm just leaving him on the bottom for now, but I would like him higher up on the rocks.

The only change I've made to my tank recently is lowering the Alk from 10 to 9, but this was over 3 weeks. I haven't seen any fish pick on the clam. No sign of pyramid snails. I have healthy, growing SPS and I run Radion G3 Pro's.

I did have a tank leak 2 weeks ago and I had to take everything out and install a new tank, but like I said, this was a couple weeks ago, and the stress was minimal.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[Tahoe61]

I sure would not move it back up and leave the clam be. Did you visually inspect the clam for Pyramids? Are any hermits, bristle or shrimp hanging around the clam? Try to get a flat rock under for attachment if able.

 

[DSC reef]

Inspect for pyramids, there really good at hiding. Since you had to move everything into a new tank it might be possible the flow pattern or intensity has changed enough to cause the clam to move.

 

[NickK]

I picked the clam up to the surface and visually inspected for pyramid snails, nothing. No bristle worms or hermits hanging around him. The flow patterns did change a little because I took a nozzle off my return, but I wouldn't think enough to bother the clam. His mantle wasn't blowing around more than normal.

I have a bare bottom right now and he is sitting on the glass looking content. I'll leave him there for at least a couple weeks and see how he does. Ultimately, I'd like to move him back up on the rocks. He get's more light up there and eventually my corals will shade the bottom of the tank.

 

[NickK]

Update! The clam has been doing fine on the bottom for a couple of weeks, so I moved him back up on the rocks. He's stayed put for 24 hours, so hopefully he'll stay there. This is an old video, but I moved him to the same spot.

In the weeks before he moved, I tried to kill some aiptasia on his shell with kalk paste. This may have irritated him and caused him to move. We will see.

 

[DSC reef]

If you find more aptaisia on the clams shell I'd remove the clam and place in a separate bucket of tank water and manually remove the aptaisia. Otherwise your more likely to have them spread since injecting them mostly just irritates them and causes an outbreak. Plus the kalk can irritate the clam. The maxima looks great btw

 

[JDNels]

I played that game with one of my clams, I wanted 1 on my rock work but all 3 seem to prefer the sand, also all three are attached
to a ceramic clam holder