Durasa clam in trouble - help

[Sonam]

We've had a durasa clam for 8 months and it has been very happy.

Last night it was wide open, fully extended and appeared normal.

Today we came to find it mostly closed with something like mucus coming out of one side (stringy mucus and a bubble of mucus).

The "mouth" is wide open. We can see soft white gills or something inside but there is also a blob of mucus in there.

We've never seen this before. Is it sick? Is there anything we can do?

 

[DSC reef]

Sorry to say buy it doesn't look good, it's gaping very badly. It's in to bad of shape for a dip. No way to tell if it had pinched mantle at this point.

 

[jda]

It is dying. Sorry. There is nothing that you can do.

There is not any new shell growth. Most of the time, clams slowly starve over many months while looking good the whole time - they are the ultimate false-positive. New shell growth is the only positive-positive that there is.

 

[Sonam]

That is what we feared. Thank you for confirming.
What could we have done to help it? We were told it didn't need any special care, that the light should be sufficient.

 

[mike werner]

GET IT OUT OF THE TANK NOW!nothing that dies in your tank is a positive thing.

 

[VTBig053]

That is what we feared. Thank you for confirming.
What could we have done to help it? We were told it didn't need any special care, that the light should be sufficient.

How big is the clam? What kind of lighting was it under? Where in the tank was it placed?

Smaller clams (under ~3”) require regular feedings as they don’t get sufficient nutrition just from photosynthesis. If your lights aren’t powerful enough then even a larger more established clam may have trouble producing enough nurishment from photosynthesis.

Sorry about your clam. My Derasa is the center piece of my tank so I’d be real bummed if I lost it.

 

[needbiggertanks]

Yeah sorry about that. I agree that it should show more new shell growth after 8 months... since it looked good for 8 months i would suggest starvation. It could quite possibly be your lighting as mentioned earlier. If you have the details, let us know. Also a FTS could help so we could see placement, etc..

 

[jda]

What could we have done to help it?

They only need light and reasonable tank parameters. Even though a Deresa is a lower light clam, they still need more light than most corals. Tank Parameters suitable for mort coral are fine, nitrate less than 20-25 and phosphate under .5 or 1 will work. They do need calcium and carbonate supplements since they use them to build their shell and a wide range from probably 7.0 to 12.0 alk and 360 to 500 calcium should be fine.