So the ORA Gold Maxima clam I just picked up this sunday seemed to be doing good in my tank. Then all the sudden I find a snail on it and come to find it is no longer living. It was 1 5/8" Was doing fine 2 hours prior I saw it looking good as usual and opened 2 hours later it was wide open with the snail. I had it on the sand bed to acclimate it to my lighting. I did the 1 hour drip acclimation when I bought it as recommended at the store. I have good water quality right now I have been feeding Marine Snow. My other 2 clams are doing great and have been showing good growth rates.
Kinda bummed right now I was all excited to add another clam to my setup and this was my first Maxima.
I have ORA Crocea and a Derasa clam.
I have heard that it is hard to raise them when they are smaller then 2". What are your takes on this guys?
BTW the clams tissue is still there (for the most part) just ripped and was oozing the clear stuff.
ok, dead, take it out of the tank.
we’d need to really ask what the params are, not “good”, but numbers, plus what are all the other inhabitants of the tank and how long has it been set up.
from experience, looking great right before death is common in clams, especially that size.
ever see any pyram snails? they are basically visible at night only.
feeding clams may be a disputed subject among some people, but the guru, james fatherree, says not to, unless you have basically a sterile tank.
+1 on the clam feeding. If you read Daniel Knop book as well. No clam feeding. I’m thinking it might be due to the feeding. How much did you feed it?
What did the snail look like?? Was it a large or very small snail??
The pyram snails are the size of a piece of rice or smaller is that what was in there? Smaller clams are a little more difficult to keep but not that much more unless your talking something a inch or smaller.
Feeding your clams even the smaller ones really isn’t needed, if your feeding the tank the marine snow for corals the clams may intake some but target feeding them is not needed and not really good.
Sorry for the loss but in keeping clams it does happen, I've had alot over the years that I've had salt water tanks and sometimes there is no real reason, just could be a weak clam. Don't let it get ya down.
Sorry I did not clarify what type of snail. It was one of my nasarius snails. I took the clam out of the tank after I saw what happened.
I did not spot feed. I fed the whole tank. The bottle says to feed 2.5ml per 50 gallons I feed approx. 2-3ml
I have a 75g with a 20g fuge. I have fed the tank only 2 times with Marine Snow since I got it on Sunday.
Last I checked.
Nitrate 0
nitrite 0
phosphate 0
ammonia 0
I forget the numbers on calc and mag but they were normal. I tested before the clam went in the tank.
It may of just been a weak clam, I know ORA seems to be the for front in aquaculture but there clams at times can be lacking.
Don't swet it. I know it suck when one dies but if the others are doing fine probably had nothing to do with
what you did.
Croceas are just as demanding as a maxima as far as chemical needs and lighting needs.
Your nasarius snails was just doing it’s clean up thing. I can remember the very first clam I lost when I saw it was dead the bristle worms were in it and I thought they killed it untill I looked them up and saw there function in the tank. ( back in 1994) ;D
calcium and alk need to be right. but many clams do just die. unfortunately. ORA is no guarantee. bill is abso right on these things.
Sorry to hear about that! I also had a mystery clam death lately, but it was 5’’ +…and that was with a little ora maxima sittin right next to it thats still doin great! I don’t really know what to say, especially with healthy clams in your system… In my very little experience with the smaller clams, i think they’re troopers. my little maxima has been covered in pyram’s and looked like it was a goner before… and bounced right back the day after i plucked 20 or more of the clam eating lil’ bas-tirds off of it.
and +1 on the feeding, i’ve never put anything but food in for the fish
What fish are in the tank?
Sometimes animals just die. I just lost a crocea I’ve had for 3 years. Probably bad husbandry, but no worse than times before, sometimes they just stress and die.
The fact that it didn’t make it a week in your tank would indicate to me that it was not a healthy specimen to begin with, probably under a lot of shipping stress, acclimation stress (how did you acclimate?), etc.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:10, topic:4481”]
What fish are in the tank?
Sometimes animals just die. I just lost a crocea I’ve had for 3 years. Probably bad husbandry, but no worse than times before, sometimes they just stress and die.
The fact that it didn’t make it a week in your tank would indicate to me that it was not a healthy specimen to begin with, probably under a lot of shipping stress, acclimation stress (how did you acclimate?), etc.[/quote]
Foxface, 2 green/blue chromis, 3 clownfish, algae blennie, female pink spot anthias, damsel, yellow pink dottyback, green spotted mandarin, yellow watchmen.
Nobody bothered the clam at all. The clam would somedays move on its side then stand straight up on its own since I got it.
I acclimate to temperature for 15-20 minutes first then After I have matching temps I start my drip 2-3 drops/second. I asked them at the store how to acclimate it since it was so small. I did not want to risk losing it. I also had it in a area with good flow.
I am going to call them today and see what they say at the FS. Hope I can get atleast a store credit since it did not last a full week and my other clams, corals and fish are doing great. My system has come a long way I think since when I first started.
I appreciate all the input guys. I am def bummed out about my first maxima I would like to give it another shot. Maybe one day Ill have as many clams as Moliken ::drool::
you said “an area with good flow” … how much flow?
[quote=“saltcreep, post:13, topic:4481”]
you said “an area with good flow” … how much flow? [/quote] i was about to say thet. if the mantle was moving in the “breeze,” you may have found a culprit. they want movement, but not direct current and niot strong. however, more likely is still just a weak clam. smaller ones are more difficult, especially since the fish are not to blame. BTW, what is your invert story, crabs, especially?
It was not as breezy as my crocea clam. It had a little movement to it when I fed you could see food was getting to it.
I have 2 emerald crabs 1 peppermint shrimp 1-3 red scarlet reef hermits and another reef safe hermit. Hermits were nowhere near the clam the whole time. I don’t even know if the emeralds are alive still they blend so well and I have not seen them in the usual spots the hide in.
I took the clam back to the store and got half credit back. We just don’t know what really happened. So I will be waiting for them to get more clams in hopefully I can get them before they get acclimated into the stores tanks. I would love to get another gold Maxima along with the blue/teal and tear drop also digging the black maxima’s with the white gold striping in them.
I am thinking maybe lighting. The store has 4 t5’s overdriven to around 60watts each and I have a total of 716watts, 216w is actinics and 500w is pheonix 250w 14k’s.
Watch the algae Blenny I lost a couple of clams to one a while ago including a prized 8 inch tear drop. The Blenny was picking at algae and got a taste of clam flesh and ripped 3 apart before I got a hold of it. It takes only a little bit of stress on clam to make it decline and die
i really don’t think you need additional lighting. i do know that my emerald crab began nipping on one of my clams. i keep no crabs in that tank any more. it’s unreasonable to think that an emerald will, but i saw it do it, so crabs can have different personalities. if i had to offer any comments, i’d say get rid of them, if they are still there.
My blennie used to eat the algae from my clam and coco worm. he was always pretty graceful as to not touch flesh. Never had anything harmed by it “yet”. My foxface I have to watch out with the most he ate a small frag of glove polyps from Florida cause there was some kind of algae that was grown around the bases of all of them. I have had no other issues with it eating or nipping corals since that 1 time.
[quote=“moliken, post:17, topic:4481”]
i really don’t think you need additional lighting. i do know that my emerald crab began nipping on one of my clams. i keep no crabs in that tank any more. it’s unreasonable to think that an emerald will, but i saw it do it, so crabs can have different personalities. if i had to offer any comments, i’d say get rid of them, if they are still there.[/quote]
I will keep that in mind. I have yet to see them do any harm to anything. Just like most of you guys that love to observe your tanks I do it very frequent through out the day and night.
Btw… i’m not sure how much it matters…(like i said, i’m still a clam rookie) but what did you do as far as lighting acclimation?
And that was great of Charlie for doing that credit especially since it looked so good in the store! I’ve got its sibling (it was in dpa bumping shoulders with your little maxima rip) two weeks ago tmmrw since i got it. and it looks great! but it took it about a week it seemed to acclimate itself to my lighting/ params before it “fully” opened up, and compared to my others, it looks as it can still be opening a tiny bit more still…maybe not… its still very “snappy” … slamming shut all the time… poor guys scared of the fish shadows still :-("
I put it on the sand bed. Next time I might put it under a somewhat shaded area so its not so intense.