maxima lost color

[coralbeauties]

I have a small maybe 2-3 in maxima that I have had for a couple of months It has been moving around lately and i have noticed that the middle of the clam has lost all color and turned white. The only blue is the outer edges of it. I had it on the bottom of my tank and am wondering if it isnt in enough light. I raised it up in my rock work yesterday to receive stronger light. Any advise would be appreciated.
thanks
jeff

 

[DSC reef]

I wouldn't raise it up. It's most likely bleaching from to much light or you have pyramid snails that are feeding on it. They literally suck the juices from the clam giving it a faded appearance. Can you post pic?

 

[coralbeauties]

I will have to try and get a pic tomorrow. I wouldnt think too much light. At the bottom of my tank it is probably only 150 par or so. It is pretty much completely white except for the edges that extend out over the shell.
thanks
jeff

 

[reef lover]

Pyramid damage would appear more on the edges of the mantle not so much the middle. Really sounds like he bleached . it might not be high par at the bottom of the tank but may have been a shock to him from whatever light he was under before.

 

[DSC reef]

Not necessarily, they literally feed of the juices. We lost all of our clams to pyramids and not one was found with mantle edge damage. James fatheree also wrote about this. General fading of the clam is definitely a sign of pyramid snails as they can enter the byssal opening. Bleaching is a possibility but not all pyramid damage is on the edges of the mantle.

 

[reef lover]

Can u provide a link with this info as I have never heard off pyramidals entering a clam and feeding from the inside....

 

[DSC reef]

I've experienced it first hand. Just look up articles from fatheree. Not trying to start a war. We were taken back by it as well. Read this article, it's how we figured it out.

 

[DSC reef]

It was weird because we never found any snails at the upper part of the shell or mantle, we checked every night. Once the clam was removed and I opened the shell there were 20+ pyramids on the inside of the shell at the bottom by the foot, some still attached to some meat. We watched the clam literally fade and I thought it was bleaching at first. After the death and some reading it made sense from what we experienced with a few others that perished. I also noticed that the clams, especially the blue squamosa, had faded over the entire mantle and not just spots or areas.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

How long to take a pyramid snail hatch from the eggs, if some eggs were on the clam shell?
It's kinda weird if you don't add anything new to the tank recently then all those mini monsters just popping out.
I really wanted to know so I can avoid these ugly thing happen to my clams, since I was investigated them very closely and carefully under magnifying glass lol

 

[DSC reef]

Not sure on that one yuki, we believe ours came in on some astrea snails. There easy to miss.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Thanks.
Take note that be sure investigate new snails If I wanted to add some more snails too

 

[reef lover]

DSCreef I will look later when I have time. I do own his books. And no war...just curious and want to know for the sake of my own clams.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Yep, I would like to know too
In my area hobbyist start getting back into clam world more and more, I even met some folks in LFS asked me about clams when they saw me around the clam tank, and asked me if a 6 inches Maxima clam would do good in 20 gallons tank as they wanted the maxima is main focus in their tank

 

[reef lover]

OK found the article. Looks likes he's talking about two different types of predatory snails. One not being seen often in the trade and the others the dreaded pyrams. I did find a couple other references to pyrams being found inside the clam but only after the clam was pretty far gone. Thanks for the info. In this case I still lean towards the centralized bleaching being from a light shock . if that's the case he should recover in time.

 

[coralbeauties]

What lighting par levels should I shoot for in the way of lighting? My maxima is a little guy maybe only 1 1/2in. Should I be trying to feed it anything? I have some goni power that I feed with if that would work. Being that small I think I read where it is good idea to feed when they are small but not sure how big they should be before they dont need fed.
thanks
Jeff

 

[DSC reef]

DSCreef I will look later when I have time. I do own his books. And no war...just curious and want to know for the sake of my own clams.

It was a shocking experience for sure. In hindsight I wish I would have taken pics and documented the progress. We always checked around the mantle but never any signs of pyramids, only on the bottom occasionally. Slowly watching the color fade then finding them inside was surprising for sure. I know one thing for sure, they will decimate snails and clams. Our reef looks so empty now, we've always had a clam. As pretty as the blue squamosa was I still miss the big one the most. We had him for years. @reef lover, I just didn't want you to take my post wrong. Lol. This is how we learn.

 

[DSC reef]

What lighting par levels should I shoot for in the way of lighting? My maxima is a little guy maybe only 1 1/2in. Should I be trying to feed it anything? I have some goni power that I feed with if that would work. Being that small I think I read where it is good idea to feed when they are small but not sure how big they should be before they dont need fed.
thanks
Jeff

I'm not sure on exact par number to be honest, I've never measured. Ever get a pic of the clam for us?

 

[needbiggertanks]

As if there weren't enough ideas floating around... here are a few more which may or may not be ur issues. (**Adapted from Knop btw)

1) Excessive warming can lead to bleaching of the siphonal mantle and subsequently the rest of the interior mantle.

2) uniform clearing up of the syphonal mantle. Dark colors begin to brighen. Microscopic slides showed a reduction of the symbiotic algae. From lack of nitrogen in the tank.

3) lack of light can cause uniform bleaching of the whole mantle, in the case of shadowed parts(such as center mantle) central bleaching. Caused by acute lack of light.

4)heavy metal poisoning can cause bleaching of a clam. First sign is lighter coloration.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

As if there weren't enough ideas floating around... here are a few more which may or may not be ur issues. (**Adapted from Knop btw)

1) Excessive warming can lead to bleaching of the siphonal mantle and subsequently the rest of the interior mantle.

2) uniform clearing up of the syphonal mantle. Dark colors begin to brighen. Microscopic slides showed a reduction of the symbiotic algae. From lack of nitrogen in the tank.

3) lack of light can cause uniform bleaching of the whole mantle, in the case of shadowed parts(such as center mantle) central bleaching. Caused by acute lack of light.

4)heavy metal poisoning can cause bleaching of a clam. First sign is lighter coloration.

I can confirm about #3 lack of light.
LFS having a maxima right at the tank back panel and half of it mantel was in shadow and the part in shadow started losing color (bleached) so I told the guy to move the maxima to center of the tank where it will receive light in all directions, he did and the maxima look beautiful within a week, I scored my reputation on that

 

[coralbeauties]

The clam looked somewhat better yesterday but today I checked on it and I have these little starfish through out my tank and there were 3 of them inside the shell along the upper edge. The clam was still open but not extended. I pulled the clam and used a small pick to pick the starfish out of the shell. hopefully didnt damage the clam doing this. Are these little stars predators of clams? They are not brittle stars, look more like little tiny chocolate stars but are pretty colorless. Im afraid I will be lucky this little guy makes it.
thanks
jeff