Gaint Clam Help - Urgent

[nelson]

Hello all,

A month or two back I bought a gaint clam for my aquarium. Due to a imminent change in my aquarium setup I kept it it in my smaller 30 gallan tank. The tank has a hang on back filter and an gen 4 pro xr30 light. It had been doing well. I came back from vacation yesterday and the clam still seemed fine. Tonight it started acting odd. It started opening up, shutting quickly squirting water and closing up. And repeating this cycle every couple minutes. I cant figure out what is wrong or get it to stop. Calcium is high over 500. Alkalinity is 8.4dkh. pH is 8.2. I am checking the other levels now. Nitrate was slightly elevated earlier today but nothing really concerning. There has also been a little spike in algae growth over the last week when I was gone as well. Dont know if its related or not. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Just leave it and see. Mine does that from time to time to dislodge sand or gravel that got dumped in it, and I also think it might help them move (blowing a trail into the sand)

When it goes, you'll know, cuz it'll be dead.

 

[chrisstevens]

Yup what salty cracker said.

 

[nelson]

Ok. My clam has seemed to stop this but since last night the water is really cloudy. I am preparing for a water change today. Anything else I should do.

 

[nelson]

Now I need more help. The clam isnt acting up anymore but now the tank is super cloudy despite an 20% water change. A nitrate spike. The few corals I have in there are rapidly dying, looks like RTN as the flesh is just falling off the bases. Tank has an odd odour to it. I have no idea what is wrong. I am trying to save what is left. I am going to place both the corals and clam into fresh seperate water containers but does anyone have any advise.

 

[Josh]

I wonder if the clam stirred up a bunch of the substrate and caused a spike. How established is your substrate and how dirty does it look? Do you have anything that sifts it? Did the clam turn over a large amount of sand quickly?

 

[nelson]

There wasnt much sand in the tank. But the sand has been used in various systems for about a year. There is only snails in that tank and even they are dying. The clam didnt really look like it moved the sand much. The tank is really cloudy at its worst you couldnt even see in more then a couple inchs.

 

[Josh]

Ok I know if you let the sand sit too long in a high nutrient tank it will collect and release nitrates when disturbed. Doesn't sound like that in your case.

 

[SamB]

Clams breed by something called broadcast spawning. Without much notice, males and females broadcast their reproductive cells, their sperm and eggs, into the water.
Rapid water changes are the only way to clear the tank

 

[nelson]

I appreciate all your help. I am sorry to say that the tank killed almost everything. Only a couple snails and a few crabs survived. This morning the clam did not react at all to light and the final confirmation is what the clams flesh was touched nothing happened. The clam was in obvious signs of gaping. I ended up moving the crabs that survived into my other tank and cleaned the small tank and got rid of everything else.

 

[Josh]

For what its worth, this type of situation scares the crap out of me with the size of the new build im working on. I am hoping to get a seneye for christmas this year which has ammonia alarm monitoring. Maybe this will help with response time to dead coral / fish / anemones / clams etc etc. Worth maybe taking a look if you think thats what nuked the tank

 

[Hong]

Do you dose kalkwasser and what is your Mg at, did you check salinity when you did your other tests ?

 

[SamB]

I’m sorry that you had to go through this experience and I’m sorry for your loss

 

[nelson]

@Josh Scares the crap out of me too. I have a 120 (which I am switching over to a new tank setup probably in the new year and a 50 gallon. I will look into that seneye. Thanks for the tip.

@Hong There was no dosing done in the tank as it was more of a holding tank. I did keep an eye out for Alk and Ca but the levels did not require dosing. I did not check Mg. Salinity was 1.025.

 

[Kevin Tran]

Stinky cloudy water ... large clam spawning in a small aquarium with limited filtration???

 

[Hong]

Spawning clam is possible. How big was the clam?

 

[Kevin Tran]

Spawning clam is possible. How big was the clam?

Dear Dr. Hong he said giant above, does he need to measure it ? Hahaha

 

[Hong]

Large is normal. He said Giant.


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[Kevin Tran]

Large is normal. He said Giant.


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Look again lol, anyway if clam spawn in a small environment like this ... It like over feed big time and the corals, live stock suffer or die

 

[nelson]

The shell was about 8in across. When the clam opened up it was about 12in.