Maxima Clam

brianjr12 · Jan 3, 2015

So I have successfully kept a Derasa Clam for awhile, and wanted to try keeping a Maxima. I purchased one from saltwater fish. It did great for about 3 weeks and in one day it died. It didn't show any signs that it was going to die. I just came home for lunch was checking everything out and noticed the mouth was gaping and when I got home 4 hours later it looked all shrunken and was pretty much nothing. My water parameters are great. I had the clam placed in about the middle of my tank on my live rock. Any ideas on what could of happened?

Tahoe61 · Jan 3, 2015

Have you ruled out Pyramid Snails, did the clam show any signs of Pinched Mantle Disease? Do you have the basic Ca/alk/mag values? Lighting type?

brianjr12 · Jan 3, 2015

I don't have pyramid snails, and I thought that with pinched mantle disease I would have seen some kind of sign of it before it died. The clam looked great from the day I put him in to the day it died. My ca is 430 alk 4 and mag 1300. I have LED lights. Is it possible that it was to close to the my lights?

phillrodrigo · Jan 3, 2015

Is the alk 4 dkh if so that's low.

scarpenter · Jan 3, 2015

4 alk??? a clam needs higher alk...

brianjr12 · Jan 4, 2015

The alk 4 the dkh 8 my alkalinity test measures the alkalinity by meq/l.

Tom@HaslettMI · Jan 4, 2015

Sorry to hear about your loss.

How big was the maxima? The small ones (<2 inches) have pretty poor survival rates. I think they lack the ability to handle the shipping and acclimation stresses compared to larger maxima clams . Did it try to attach to the rock? If not, its byssal gland may have been damaged... which is often fatal.

Basically, it doesn't sound (to me) like you did anything to cause its demise.

Tom

brianjr12 · Jan 4, 2015

It was about 2 inches. It had attached to my live rock, but know that I think about it a couple of days after adding the clam to my tank it took a dive off the rock. It didn't seem to affect it.

Tahoe61 · Jan 4, 2015

Falling was probably the issue.

Tom@HaslettMI · Jan 5, 2015

Sounds like too much stress for such a small clam. If it was moving around then it wasn't happy in that spot, which was stressing it. A fall would further stress it. Who knows how much stress it was exposed to before you got it.

If/when you get another one try getting one a bit larger and acclimating it on the sandbed in an old shell.

Tom