Pinched mantle

[loubee]

Is pinched mantle infectious to other clams? I've had a few clams doing really well for almost a year and recently added some new ones & think they have introduced problems... now loosing them (old & new). Is the best thing daily freshwater dips?

Thanks, Lou

[crvz]

I think it's still a mystery as to what causes it. I know Barry over at www.clamsdirect.com was trying to collect a bunch of data to study the disease, but I never paid much attention to what happened as I've been fortunate not to have experienced it. You may try their forum if no one here has the answers...

[gwaco]

yes it does spread . and yes at this time freshwater dips are still the best thing to do . i think i would do it maybe every other day though . i lost three calms to it . i also found the larger the clam the better success you have . good luck !

[loubee]

Thanks guys... I'll try dipping every other day

Lou

[Wiskey]

I'll post this reply over here too.

From what I haar pinched mantle can be infectious, but IME 1 FWD is usually enough to make it go away for a few days at least,.. sometimes it comes back a week or so later and another dip needs to be done, but I don't think daily dips would be good for your clam at all.

Could you tell us how your doing your FWD? The most luck I ever had I left the clam (this one was in bad shape) in the FWD for 25 min or so. I didn't mean to leave it in there that long but I didn't hear the 15 min timer go off. It worked so well though that in the future I may just do that on purpose.

Could you also give us more data on your tank setup? Often times other stressors like lack of light, light shock, nipping fish, perams out of wack etc can manafest themselfs as what looks like pinched mantle initally.

Also, what speices of clam are we talking about here? Can you get any pics?

Thanks!
Whiskey