What happened to my clam?!?!

billrob71 · Mar 23, 2015

Looking at that pic kinda hard to see, but the center of the clam loosing its pigment shows it was pretty stressed. Its gaping at the bottom ,and the inlet looks like its pretty open and the mantel looks pretty recessed in . Did it look more open at the store? Silly to ask but the light is new from October as well?

The maximas are a little more temperamental then the others but not hopeless when keeping.

haleyf1024 · Mar 23, 2015

No, my tank is 5 foot long, only 20" high, the clam was probably 17" from the top. Plus a week is too little time to starve him. He was going to move up over time to about 5" from the water top

billrob71 · Mar 23, 2015

Yeah never seen one starve in a week.

haleyf1024 · Mar 23, 2015

billrob71 said:
Looking at that pic kinda hard to see, but the center of the clam loosing its pigment shows it was pretty stressed. Its gaping at the bottom ,and the inlet looks like its pretty open and the mantel looks pretty recessed in . Did it look more open at the store? Silly to ask but the light is new from October as well?

The lights are new from January. The clam was actually beginning to color up, at first he was brown with blue like all of the other clams the store has, but the center was actually starting to color up by the last day and became more blue. That pic was of 3 days before it died. The mantle was fully open, it was over the top of the shell and what you see in the pic is a just a ridge under that. Looking now though, I agree that he was gaping a little at the bottom

haleyf1024 · Mar 23, 2015

Forgot to mention this but his reaction time was great. As soon as my hand passed under the light or a hermit accidentally bumped into him he shut quickly, the reaction time was never unhealthy.

NanaReefer · Mar 24, 2015

haleyf1024 said:
Forgot to mention this but his reaction time was great. As soon as my hand passed under the light or a hermit accidentally bumped into him he shut quickly, the reaction time was never unhealthy.

Mine too just last night. Then this morning gone and Bristle Worms all over it.

Sangheili · Mar 25, 2015

billrob71 said:
Yeah never seen one starve in a week.

Don't forget that the clam likely didn't come from high light system or the ocean to your tank overnight. It got shipped to a wholesaler, then to a retailer, then sold to you. An unknown amount of days under unknown lighting could have passed before you put it in in your tank.

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 25, 2015

NanaReefer said:
Second time today I read this being more common with Tridacna clams. No more for me. From now on it's Squamosa or Derasa.

Squamoasa are my fav, I managed to get one with a lot of blue and it is beautiful but I def like the golden color they typically have

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 25, 2015

From the pictures the top layer of she'll are oftly discolored.. This is usually from extended period of lack of mantle. Extension over them. Allowing for. Growth of other things that in a healthy clam would never see light.. Just something to look at for. Future purchases.. I think your issue is bacterial.. And unfortunately it happens.. Here is an excerpt from an article on advancedreef " Humphrey et al. (1987) listed off quite a few of these potentially dangerous bacteria, including various species of Vibrio, Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, and Pseudomonas, and Knop (1996) added Xeromonas and Plesoimonas, too. Then there's a rickettsiales-like bacteria, that forms cysts on the gills of Hippopus hippopus, which was reported by Norton et al. (1993a), and an unidentified bacteria found on the gills of Tridacna gigas, reported by Norton et al. (1993b), too. Apparently any of these have the ability to kill a clam, and again, the only symptom of trouble that you might see is gaping, and possibly some necrotic mantle tissue"

mattvisocky2003 · Jul 8, 2015

I just had this exact thing happen to my squam overnight. Healthy for 3 months and I moved him up to higher light a week ago. Could that have done it?

ngvu1 · Jul 12, 2015

Hi, I am new to the clam world

;
My clam looked very happy last night. This morning, it looks like this (no light). I was like what the heck. I beam a flash light to it and something pull back to under the shell. There is something inside, part of the clam moving like shrink back when I beam the light. At first I thought that was a snail or something flat muscle moving, but it looks like the top lip part of the clam shrinking in when I beam the light. However the shells are not moving when I beam the light to it. RIP?

Edit: I checked again and the both lips 1 from top and 1 from bottom are covering up the meat part of the clam. It is doing something.