Emergency Moral Dilema

[Aquattro]

My dying, but still alive for now clam is turning my tank into milk. Do I remove it now, killing it for sure, or do I give it the oppurtunity to fight and hang on? I've added carbon, the slime has shut my skimmer down, the fish LOVE whatever is being spewed and nothing else seems affected. Quick responses please!!!

[Dale D]

If it is gaping really badly I would pull it out and put it out of it's misery. I always hate doing that, but, sometimes it is the best thing to do.

I might be nuts tongue.gif but, I always find myself saying " I'm sorry" to an animal as I am putting it out of it's misery. I always feel that I have let it down and should have been able to do more.

Once they (sick clams etc) start giving off "substances" it usually attracts the savengers and decomposers of the tank and their activity usually finishes the animal off.

Sorry about your clam. :(

[Delphinus]

Is this your last clam? Man that is bad. Sorry.

If you're pretty sure it's done for, the humane thing would be to ... well, you know. I myself have never been able to do that except under extreme duress. Very difficult.

I'm sorry for your run of bad luck. :(

[ 17 July 2002, 22:28: Message edited by: delphinus ]

[Aquattro]

Ya, it's clouding the tank pretty bad. I know it's done for, but the way they die from this "disease" is weird. It is mostly extended and completely responsive to light...but spewing about a tablespoon of gunk every 10 -15 seconds. It may affect the O2 levels in the tank, so it looks like freezer time.
The clam that introduced this problem was a last minute spur decision....I guess it was the wrong decision. :(

[EmilyB]

Freeze it.

Then bury under your favorite tree. :(

And the black maxima??? No more ?

[Aquattro]

Originally posted by EmilyB:
Freeze it.

Then bury under your favorite tree. :(

And the black maxima??? No more ?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Deb, the "black" one is actually blue. And is the one that is the subject of this post. And my last clam. 3 clams in 2 weeks. Not happy....

[EmilyB]

http://jabot2000.homestead.com/files/emoticons/crying.gif

Very sorry Brad....

[DJ88]

Sh!t......

Sorry Brad.....

I feel the pain..

[Troy F]

Terrible news.

[Aquattro]

Well, I went to pull him out and it looks fine. Of course this was what the gold one did just before it died. It is strongly attached to the rock, and still responsive to light. No scavengers are near it (although they never went near the others when they were dead). I'm just too sucky to pull it before it is officially beyond recovery. And although I'm 99% sure it won't last the night, I have to give it the chance. Maybe this one is different than all the other hundreds of clams dying this month.

Darren, is your black still OK?

[canadawest]

Cross your fingers Brad, perhaps you'll wake up to a recovering clam in the morning.

If not, at least it went on it's own overnight, and you don't have to feel guilty about taking it's life in your hands. (HTH)

[Aquattro]

Crossing my fingers seems to be working for the moment...I still have a living clam. Almost happy looking too. We'll see....

[stephane]

Sory for your lost :(

I never heard about that but have you ask RC clams forum?

about trowing out I tink you should wait maybe she could recovert!!!! dont bury it alive give here a chance ;)

[stephane]

Ho! and if you have a diatom+water change for cleaning that mess Azap

[BCReefer]

My clam has also perished last Friday. That is the 2nd and I will not buy another until I figure out what is going on.

Maybe with such a big death toll on clams in the past few months, can their be any thing going on when they are picked from the ocean and flown to Vancouver????

Mine was their one day and the next it was gone and I mean gone - right out of its shell. Not sure if after it died did the cleaners get it or do I have a clam eater in my tank??

Patrick

[DJ88]

Brad,

both my black and purple max are doing great. No problems.

http://members.shaw.ca/dj88/pix/bmax.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/dj88/pix/pmax.jpg

[Aquattro]

Strangely, mine is still OK. I'm suspecting the white goo was sperm. It still doesn't look as good as it has, but it's mantle is out and it's smiling.

[Delphinus]

To be honest Brad, my first impulse was to ask "are you sure it isn't a spawn"? But then I thought twice, because I figured, oh shoot of course he knows if it's a spawn or not.

Maybe somehow there was a stressor, and the stress induced a spawn, but other than that maybe it's OK.

I am glad you decided to hold off on making any final decisions. I am the same way. Far easier to let something go on its own, rather than seal its fate and wonder forever after if you did the right thing. Granted, sometimes it IS the right thing, but it sounds like yours has a fighting chance.

Good luck!!!!

[Aquattro]

Tony, any other time I would have assumed it was a spawn. But having my squamosa die had me paranoid. Then the gold maxima did this spewing thing, and I though"hmm, maybe it's spawning" but then it died!! So when the blue one started this, I though "s**t, this one's gonna die now". And everyone I know has dying clams, I just panicked...so far it still looks fine.
Not sure what could have trggered any stress as everything has been stable for days previous. Nothing else appeared stressed either. Ohwell, don't look a gift clam in the siphon, or whatever that saying is!!

Thanks everyone for your advice and concern.

[Delphinus]

I thought that clam spawns in captivity are a bad thing. Basically, they choke to death on their own gametes or it clogs their gills or something like that -- because in the ocean the spawn is very quickly carried away and dissipated into the ocean -- but in our tanks it has nowhere to go so it very quickly progresses from a "hey this is cool" to "OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING?!!".

I wonder if this is what's happened to you, and not this dreaded clam disease. Well of course it could be that too but I'm just wondering.

Of course, I am still sorry for the other losses. I know your pain! All too well. I really, really hope this one pulls through for you!

[Aquattro]

Tony, the strange thing is the gold clam was way smaller than the blue. And after the gold spawn, I did a water change. When the blue clam did whatever it did, the whole tank turned cloudy and all I did was add some carbon. The clam still looks reasonablly happy. The first one that died, a squamosa, did not "eject" anything. It just gaped and died. I think I may have had a shipping stressed clam and then a completely different problem. Time will tell.