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Maxima not looking so good


Grumblecakes

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Grumblecakes

my maxima has not been looking to good for the past week or so. On the right side of the attached picture you can see a spot where it apears to have bleeched and on the next scalope up it has a small chunk of flesh thats gone. As well as a small chunk missing at the very bottom. The second picture is what it normally looks like.

 

I had an alk crash about 5 days ago that i dont think helped but it wasnt looking good before that. I have 2 theories atm: The montipora next to it is/was stinging it when the mantle was fully extended, or my lawnmower blenny has been nipping at it. Ive never seen the blenny nip at it but that doesnt mean it hasnt.

 

It responds to light, kinda, when i got it about a year and a half ago it responded by closing up completely now it just flinches, been doing that for almost a year. it responds quickly to touch though. I've seen it poo a few times since this has been happening, i hope that is a good sign. Ive checked for pyramid snails several times and have seen any. I work grave yard and get home in the middle of the night cycle and havent seen any with a flash light. Ive also touched the mantle to get it to retract and havent seen any under it. It has also started growing a new chute, so my assumption has been its been healthy until recently.

 

Normal extension for it has always been about 2-3in from the edge of the shell and almost 90 degrees out from the shell. now its maybe 1in and flat against it.

 

Only thing i have changed lately, besides the PO4 remover, added it then removed it after i saw the problem, is adding an mp10 and removing the old power heads. I did a 25% water change 2 nights ago and another one last night. Besides alittle algae and some bleaching on 2 sps from to much light everything looks great and is growing fast.

 

parms:

ammonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 0-5 (can never read the test well)

sg 1.025

mag 1400

alk 13.5 dkh

ca 400

PO4 - didnt test

pH ~8

temp 78

 

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post-69990-0-74296200-1371816076_thumb.jpg

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Grumblecakes

Anyone have any insight they can offer?. Its still looking sickly but it responds to touch and light. Haven't seen normal mantle extension for 2 or 3 weeks now

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That's a tough one. It looks irritated, but not completely unhealthy. Is it possible for you to reposition it in a different location and see if it improves? I would try and keep things as stable as you can for awhile as alk swings, or any other param, will not do it any good.

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Grumblecakes

Well I think its a goner. No longer responding and its shriveled up in its shell. Nass snails are also starting to climb its shell

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I dont think it was the alk. Yea yours is high but not so high it would do more then iritate them. You probably changed too much water. What makes clams difficult is they HATE new artificial.sea water.

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Rollermonkey

^I'm still wondering what happened to mine. One day it was there with nice extension, the next day it was an empty shell.

 

Nothing in my tank is big enough to do it by themselves, so it must have been one heck of a feeding party.

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  • 3 months later...

I dont think it was the alk. Yea yours is high but not so high it would do more then iritate them. You probably changed too much water. What makes clams difficult is they HATE new artificial.sea water.

Why do they hate it ?

How much water do you recommend to change at a time and how often I use instant ocean in a 90 my clam doesn't respond to shadows as much and the bottom lips are retracted (is that what pinched mantle is)

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Why do they hate it ?

How much water do you recommend to change at a time and how often I use instant ocean in a 90 my clam doesn't respond to shadows as much and the bottom lips are retracted (is that what pinched mantle is)

 

Your clam is starving. I could write 10 pages about clams and water changes with all the trials and errors we have had. The unfortunate thing is I can not tell you how much water to change because even though all of our parameters are pretty much the same, our DOC levels are insanely different. I have tanks that need 5 gallon daily water changes, but on the other hand i have a tank where a 10% water change will stress the clams to close up/retract for a week, and perhaps die if they were not strong in the first place. This is the end result of heavy carbon use along with a killer skimmer.

So if I was you this is what I would do.

Dont ever change more than 10% and just watch how your clam responds the next day. If everything looks the same I would do 10% every week. If it closes up and recovers, then try it every other week.

How long have you had it? What kind of clam is it ? DO you feed it ? are you confident in your lighting system?

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I have had it for about 2 months it was doing good until I did a 20% water change come to think of it on a 90 g system

 

It's a maxima clam 2 inches

Do not feed until now just bought some live phytofeast by your recommendation

I'm confident my kessil a360w is strong enough

 

I will look for what happens when I do a water change next week.

What's the main problem with clams and water changes ? Isn't new clean water supposed to be good ?

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