Clam Dead

[Mike Murphy]

I've had this Crocea for a couple of months and it seemed fine. Mantle was displayed completely aznd coloration looked good. Looked fine Sunday night but Monday morning things looked bad and I switched to another tank with metal halides over the PC's but this morning it was apparent it was dead. Do they just up and die suddenly like this? I would have thought if it were a lighting issue that some type of distress would be apparent first.

[Wiskey]

I am sorry to hear that.

How are the test results from the MH tank? No ammonia or anything right?

The only thing I can think is maybe it was weak from when it was under PC, and the sudden change to lots of light was the final nail in the coffin.

Usually Clams take a while to actually die, unless it gets eaten or something, an LFS near me keeps them under far to little light, and they last about 2-4 months, but never longer than that.

If you were to get another Crocea clam, I would keep it in the MH tank over the PC tank, I don't think the MH was too much light, I think the change was just too much.

Sorry about your loss,
Whiskey

[kevinnq]

how big was your clam? I had 3 clams in my tank (with MH) and they are doing fine. I asked my LFS and they said that with small to medium clams (3" or less), you should direct with them with snow white or other filter phytoplanton at least once a day. my clams are 3.5-4" and i direct feed them once or twice a week with snow white. i feed the whole tank with phytoplanton twice weekly, and all my corals (LPS and SPS) are doing fine. My SPS (acropora) are growing fast.
Also the LFS told me that I should put the clams at the bottom of the tank ( have have one at bottom and 2 on the rocks, and they are doing fine) and that once they are settled, dont move them.
If the clams close their shelves, try to fresh water (with chlorine removal) dip for 20 min. to clean the parasites then put it back to the tank (becareful not to take the clams out of water while transfering).

[Mike Murphy]

Water parameters were fine. The only thing I did was add a dose of Kent Marine Iodine supplement on Sunday which is what I have been doing about every week according to dosage recommendations. Fish, soft corals etc all fine. I think it was dead yesterday and it became really apparent today. Maybe the iodine did it. What ever it was it was too sudden in my opinion to be anything else. No evidence of parasites, calcium was 440-460, ph 8.4, no nitrate tank is 6 months old I have been feeding Kent Zooplex and Microvert and skimming running a lighted sump with a nice growth of macro algae in tank. Clam was about 3 inches. Turning skimmer off while feeding for several hours.