Maxima clam not opening

[Black Pearl]

Check the base for tiny snails about the size of a grain of rice, cant remember what they are called but they will devastate a clam
Pyramidellid snails

 

[Warderkous]

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.

Totally agree I had my dress for a little over two years and she was my pride and joy. She would always give full extension of her mantel and was doing very well, the one day I noticed that she didn’t look the same and her mantel was separating from the shell. Tested parameters all were fine. And when I came home from work she was gone. Tore my heart out. All other coral, fish, clams, and inverts were doing fine. I checked for pests, and anything else that I could have thought of that could have been responsible for her loss but found nothing. Make sure she’s getting enough flow, and food, check for elevated levels of nitrate ensure the lighting is strong enough for her, check for pests and other irritants and make sure that your calcium and alk are stable. Cross fingers and hope for the best. Good luck

 

[drewsreef]

Totally agree I had my dress for a little over two years and she was my pride and joy. She would always give full extension of her mantel and was doing very well, the one day I noticed that she didn’t look the same and her mantel was separating from the shell. Tested parameters all were fine. And when I came home from work she was gone. Tore my heart out. All other coral, fish, clams, and inverts were doing fine. I checked for pests, and anything else that I could have thought of that could have been responsible for her loss but found nothing. Make sure she’s getting enough flow, and food, check for elevated levels of nitrate ensure the lighting is strong enough for her, check for pests and other irritants and make sure that your calcium and alk are stable. Cross fingers and hope for the best. Good luck

Unfortunatley it didn't make it...thanks for all the help though [emoji30] i noticed it started to gape 2 days ago and i knew at that point it was a lost cause. I never knew what it was. Maybe the sand that was dumped in its mantle. And now ive also lost most of my fish to a fast ich outbreak. I have never seen ich take out as many fish as it did. In a matter of 3 days. [emoji21]

 

[reef lover]

So sorry to hear that...could have been velvet...that' s a very quick killer....

 

[drewsreef]

So sorry to hear that...could have been velvet...that' s a very quick killer....

Could have been [emoji17]

 

[Makers Marc]

Just bumping this to create some mythbusting.

I've had a Maxima Clam for 3.5 yrs that literally tripled the amount of ridges on its shell. It sat on the sandbed of my old 75g, which also only had some crappy orbit marine LEDs. This was when I first got started in the hobby and was oblivious to par, etc.

So... I'm pretty sure my par at that area was in the low-mid 100s and the clam not only survived, but thrived. Maybe it's because I also had dirtier water. But that par was sufficient.

 

[DSC reef]

I would consider this a rare occasion similar to a condylactis anemone hosting a clownfish. I would not take this one scenario as all maximas can do just fine at 100 par (especially if was never measured). Nothing is more important to tridacna than light. Many books and lots of info that has proven that for many years buy expert tridacna keepers. I'm not discrediting what was experienced but I would not recommend that amount of light is sufficient for tridacna maxima.