T. noae mantle extention

Acroporaguy · Jun 7, 2021

Hello,

I picked up a beautiful wild T. noae from my workplace about 3 weeks ago. Initially it had pretty good mantle extention (was never anything like my T. crocea though), but now I find it's always partially closed up. The clam is still very reactive to light, has a strong foot, and I've seen it open and close rapidly (assuming it's trying to move?). One thing to note, practically the entire clam shipment died within a week at my work. I have it under a radion G5 XR30 and 4 T5 bulbs so lighting is not an issue. Even though it is close to my nero 5 I have the pump dialed really low because I thought it may have been getting too much flow, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. No pyram snails. I also feed a ton of live phyto. Any idea what may be wrong, PMD? I added some photos of when I first got it, and now.

Thank you.

Uncle99 · Jun 7, 2021

Somebody, nip at him?
I had an Aptasia hiding just under the mantle once, stopped the clam from fully opening.

Acroporaguy · Jun 7, 2021

Unfortunately no :-(

Uncle99 said:
Somebody, nip at him?
I had an Aptasia hiding just under the mantle once, stopped the clam from fully opening.

xjiang7 · Jun 9, 2021

The ridges of shell showing when the mantle is fully opened is how my T noae looked before it perished

Stephen · Jun 9, 2021

What's the inhalent siphon look like? What's the time progression of the photos you put up? The first photo looks fine to me. It could be adjusting to your lighting and flow but the other pictures show me some signs of concern. If all of the clams at your workplace died and this is from that batch I'd say it was bacterial or protozoa infection. Have you tried a 30 minute freshwater bath? A couple of months ago some clams from a supplier started showing up on the east coast that quickly died in some shops that didn't treat them. They all ended up having pinched mantle. The top right and 2 bottom photos you put up make me believe that your clam is in the beginning stages of it. You can treat it if the clam is still healthy enough by giving it a 30 minute freshwater bath in ro/di water that's been temp acclimated to the tank it's in. It's surprising how well it works and how quickly the clam recovers.

vetteguy53081 · Jun 9, 2021

Any crab or shrimp within the shell Or spiral looking snails around the clam?
Assure CA, temp, alk, PH and salinity didnt climb out of safe range

Acroporaguy · Jun 13, 2021

xjiang7 said:
The ridges of shell showing when the mantle is fully opened is how my T noae looked before it perished

Sorry to hear :-(

Acroporaguy · Jun 13, 2021

Stephen said:
What's the inhalent siphon look like? What's the time progression of the photos you put up? The first photo looks fine to me. It could be adjusting to your lighting and flow but the other pictures show me some signs of concern. If all of the clams at your workplace died and this is from that batch I'd say it was bacterial or protozoa infection. Have you tried a 30 minute freshwater bath? A couple of months ago some clams from a supplier started showing up on the east coast that quickly died in some shops that didn't treat them. They all ended up having pinched mantle. The top right and 2 bottom photos you put up make me believe that your clam is in the beginning stages of it. You can treat it if the clam is still healthy enough by giving it a 30 minute freshwater bath in ro/di water that's been temp acclimated to the tank it's in. It's surprising how well it works and how quickly the clam recovers.

I've seen it open pretty wide in the morning somedays, I'm not sure if it would be classified as a gaping mouth though. I've had the clam for about 3 weeks now, I'm guessing it started closing up a bit after a few days in the tank. You're probably right about the protozoa, but the clam has layed a really strong foot and I don't want to cut the threads to dip it. It seems to be doing a bit better actually, but still not fully open. Really good response to light etc. I've also been running a ton of carbon as I read it can help with pinched mantle? Here's a photo. No topdown because I didn't want to cut the flow as my clownfish are on a batch of eggs (don't want to disturb them).

Acroporaguy · Jun 13, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
Any crab or shrimp within the shell Or spiral looking snails around the clam?
Assure CA, temp, alk, PH and salinity didnt climb out of safe range

No parasitic pyram snails or anything like that. Parameters are stable

Acroporaguy · Jun 20, 2021

It seems to be doing much better. I've been dosing a ton of live phyto daily (enough to turn the water murky for a few hours), I think that has helped a bit. I also ramped the Radion XR30 even higher, as the clam was wild caught so I can only assume it was getting pounded with sunlight. Here's a photo of it feeding on live phyto. I don't feel like it's perfectly happy yet, but an improvement nonetheless.

MartinM · Jun 24, 2021

At 3 weeks, I wouldn’t worry. IME it takes 2 months for clams to be fully acclimated with full extension, but like others have said, since that batch had some kind of pathogen, a FW dip couldn’t hurt.

Acroporaguy · Jun 24, 2021

MartinM said:
At 3 weeks, I wouldn’t worry. IME it takes 2 months for clams to be fully acclimated with full extension, but like others have said, since that batch had some kind of pathogen, a FW dip couldn’t hurt.

Thanks for the response! It has been doing better thankfully, so I won't dip it unless it starts to go downhill. I'll keep this thread updated on any changes.

MartinM · Jun 25, 2021

That’s what I’d do, let us know how it goes!

Acroporaguy · Jul 22, 2021

The T. noae is doing great.

MartinM · Jul 22, 2021

Hey, an answer to prayer! That’s very good news glad to see it. Keep an eye on it and make sure it’s continually growing, then you know for sure that it’s happy and healthy.

Acroporaguy · Jul 23, 2021

MartinM said:
Hey, an answer to prayer! That’s very good news glad to see it. Keep an eye on it and make sure it’s continually growing, then you know for sure that it’s happy and healthy.

Thanks! Yeah for sure, it's always a good sign when you see a white edge on the shell

I'll continue to update this thread every so often

Acroporaguy · Sep 9, 2021

Just an update, the clam is doing very well. Here's a photo of it (a bit closed up because it could sense the camera above it). I also added a GE 6500K to my bulb mix so hopefully it enjoys the full spectrum.

Acroporaguy · Dec 12, 2021

The clam is still doing well. I guess I managed to save it from impending doom.

ArachnoJoozt · Dec 13, 2021

Incredibly beautiful clam! Cool story too

For the other ones that didn't make it from that shipment: what do you guess was the cause of death? Sounds like a lack of light compared to the wild? Since you're giving it pretty much full blast I would guess the light conditions at your workplace were not up to par? (pun intended)

Acroporaguy · Dec 13, 2021

ArachnoJoozt said:
Incredibly beautiful clam! Cool story too

For the other ones that didn't make it from that shipment: what do you guess was the cause of death? Sounds like a lack of light compared to the wild? Since you're giving it pretty much full blast I would guess the light conditions at your workplace were not up to par? (pun intended)

My work had them under very blue radion lighting. Perhaps they were being starved from the white light they have been grown under in the wild. Or maybe it was a pathogen issue? The crocea we got did fine, but the T. noae did very poorly