Ugh, QT your clams...

[FlyPenFly]

I've had 3 Maxima clams there were well established and loving life in different parts of the rock work. Introduced a very large healthy looking maxima from the LFS that I paid a premium for. I saw it in their tanks for 2.5 weeks and it was doing fine with no obvious of troubles so I took it home. After 2 weeks, it was looking a little squirrelly so I did a FW dip, week later it ejected it's insides, ejected it's foot, then died.

Slowly the 3 happy clams did the exact same things in the same timeline sequentially despite temp/ph matched 20-25min FW dips and even doing no dip. I put the last clam in a different established SPS tank when the second maxima started dying. No pyramid snails on any. All 3 died with the last one dying in a completely different tank. Not sure what got them but it almost was like it traveled up the tank somehow because the big clam was at the bottom. I do have very strong flow in the system but the clams are well shielded by SPS and rock work from the heavy flow.

It wasn't pinched mantle, not sure what it was but all I really did was infect both my SPS tanks with some kind of clam disease. I'll go clam-less for a few months and then see if I can introduce them again after a clam fallow period.

All other animals and corals were doing great.

 

[cancun]

I've had 3 Maxima clams there were well established and loving life in different parts of the rock work. Introduced a very large healthy looking maxima from the LFS that I paid a premium for. I saw it in their tanks for 2.5 weeks and it was doing fine with no obvious of troubles so I took it home. After 2 weeks, it was looking a little squirrelly so I did a FW dip, week later it ejected it's insides, ejected it's foot, then died.

Slowly the 3 happy clams did the exact same things in the same timeline sequentially despite temp/ph matched 20-25min FW dips and even doing no dip. I put the last clam in a different established SPS tank when the second maxima started dying. No pyramid snails on any. All 3 died with the last one dying in a completely different tank. Not sure what got them but it almost was like it traveled up the tank somehow because the big clam was at the bottom. I do have very strong flow in the system but the clams are well shielded by SPS and rock work from the heavy flow.

It wasn't pinched mantle, not sure what it was but all I really did was infect both my SPS tanks with some kind of clam disease. I'll go clam-less for a few months and then see if I can introduce them again after a clam fallow period.

All other animals and corals were doing great.

Oh man! I am so sorry for loosing the new clams, especially the established ones!!! That is so strange....like something that only affects clams and nothing else! I am curious to know what it was!

 

[DSC reef]

It could be a protozoa or perkinsus. Pretty common and will spread from clam to clam.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Definitely spread clam to clam for sure. Hopefully I can introduce a clam again and the system isn’t forever tainted. I do run a Vecton UV since then...

 

[TheHarold]

I had a similar experience. Had two for ~2 years. Added another, and lost all three within 2 weeks.

 

[jasonrusso]

Do you think QT would have helped? You said it was fine at the LFS for a while.

Do clams have a toxin that may only affect other clams?

 

[FlyPenFly]

Do you think QT would have helped? You said it was fine at the LFS for a while.

Do clams have a toxin that may only affect other clams?

Mayhaps, I was running carbon but who knows.