Maxima clam not opening

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

I have had my clam for about a month now. It was doing excellent until a week ago. I have noticed that it hasn't opened up as much as it was a couple weeks ago. I did notice that my gold head sand sifting goby would dump a lot of sand in the mantle when he would sift sand. I had to keep blowing the sand out of the mantle with a turkey baster. I eventually took the goby out and it hasn't opened up all the way. My parameters ph 8.2, cal 450, alk 10, mg 1380, sg 1.025, temp 74, nitrates 0, phospates 0.0-0.04 i have been looking for any pests and haven't seen any

DSC reef · Mar 23, 2018

I suspect the constant blowing off sand might have irritated the clam a bit. Did you notice any damage to the mantle? Have you tried to pick the clam up an rotate it under water? That is a really nice maxima. Parameters look good, the temp is a bit low, does it stay consistent at 74? Make sure it's getting plenty of light.

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

DSC reef said:
I suspect the constant blowing off sand might have irritated the clam a bit. Did you notice any damage to the mantle? Have you tried to pick the clam up an rotate it under water? That is a really nice maxima. Parameters look good, the temp is a bit low, does it stay consistent at 74? Make sure it's getting plenty of light.

The mantle doesn't seem damaged. I have rotated the clam but that didn't seem to help. I also don't want to be moving it much. It is a really nice clam...i would have to lose it. My temp stays at 74 pretty constant. As far as light. I have a kessil ap700 running at 65% and the clam sits right underneath it. Idk how much par i'm getting since i don't have a par meter

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 23, 2018

How high above the tank is the light ?

A maxima wants a LOT of light.
@DSC reef , 200? Or close to it I belive.

@crabs_mcjones help us with some kessil par Por favor?

DSC reef · Mar 23, 2018

200 par minimum I'd say since that clam looks to be about 5" plus. How's the flow in that area?

Crabs McJones · Mar 23, 2018

What's the distance between the ap700 and your clam?

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
How high above the tank is the light ?

A maxima wants a LOT of light.
@DSC reef , 200? Or close to it I belive.

@crabs_mcjones help us with some kessil par Por favor?

The light is 16 in above the tank. It is a 4 ft by 1 ft tank. The clam sits 17 in at the bottom here is a pic

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

DSC reef said:
200 par minimum I'd say since that clam looks to be about 5" plus. How's the flow in that area?

The flow isn't too hard. The mantle gently moves. Anywhere else the flow starts to pic up a lot. I have to maxspect gyres

Crabs McJones · Mar 23, 2018

drewsreef said:
The light is 16 in above the tank. It is a 4 ft by 1 ft tank. The clam sits 17 in at the bottom here is a pic

So if I'm reading that right the clam is 33 inches away from the fixture?

DSC reef · Mar 23, 2018

The clam seems in close proximity to to corals that can throw some sweepers. Maybe try putting it up on some rock work a little above the sand bed, not more than halfway though.

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
So if I'm reading that right the clam is 33 inches away from the fixture?

Yes

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

DSC reef said:
The clam seems in close proximity to to corals that can throw some sweepers. Maybe try putting it up on some rock work a little above the sand bed, not more than halfway though.

I will try that

Crabs McJones · Mar 23, 2018

I'm guessing it's not getting enough par. At that distance. With the light at 100% intensity these are what you're looking at for par numbers

Again this is with the light at 100% intensity, being that you only have yours at 65% you're going to be a lot lower than that by a little over half.

drewsreef · Mar 23, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
I'm guessing it's not getting enough par. At that distance. With the light at 100% intensity these are what you're looking at for par numbers

Again this is with the light at 100% intensity, being that you only have yours at 65% you're going to be a lot lower than that by a little over half.

Thanks for that picture. Ill slowly increase the intensity

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 24, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
I'm guessing it's not getting enough par. At that distance. With the light at 100% intensity these are what you're looking at for par numbers

Again this is with the light at 100% intensity, being that you only have yours at 65% you're going to be a lot lower than that by a little over half.

Nice!

reef lover · Mar 24, 2018

Would also like to add that with the goby throwing sand on him it' possible there' sand inside irritating the clam....had it happen with my squammy I had to flip him over in the water and let the loose sand and rubble fall out....that was over a year ago and he' been happy ever since.

drewsreef · Mar 24, 2018

reef lover said:
Would also like to add that with the goby throwing sand on him it' possible there' sand inside irritating the clam....had it happen with my squammy I had to flip him over in the water and let the loose sand and rubble fall out....that was over a year ago and he' been happy ever since.

I'll give it a shot and see if that helps...really don't want to lose this guy

jda · Mar 25, 2018

Unless you are going to add more light, I would look for another home for it. IMO, that Kessil will never be enough light for that clam even at 100%.

Clams are the ultimate false-positive and will look great right up until the day that they die when they were starving the whole time. This can take 6-9 months for some keepers. People think that they are doing great, but the clam was dying. Appreciable new shell growth is the only true positive.

Robert Scott · Mar 26, 2018

I've been able to keep a large Derosa for 3 years. Good lighting, moderate to low flow. I believe they are filter feeders...maybe your nutrients are too low?

gig 'em · Mar 26, 2018

jda said:
Unless you are going to add more light, I would look for another home for it. IMO, that Kessil will never be enough light for that clam even at 100%.

Clams are the ultimate false-positive and will look great right up until the day that they die when they were starving the whole time. This can take 6-9 months for some keepers. People think that they are doing great, but the clam was dying. Appreciable new shell growth is the only true positive.

Spot on. In recently had a maxima that looked perfectly fine for weeks and was actively growing. I saw a whole new layer of scutes added to it in the time I owned it! I thought it was for sure going to be a long term pet. Then one day it stopped extending its mantle as much. Didn't know what it was being caused by, but didn't think much of it. Then I went out of town and came home to an empty shell. No clue what caused it or why it died. Clams are an ultimate mystery sometimes.