Why are all of my clams dying???

[whatcaneyedo]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

How is your bioload helping your clam? clams eat phytoplankton, not fish waste.

Yes they do. Does this little game we play ever get boring to you?

Fatherree explains in his book how clams can feed on a variety of things such as phytoplankton, dissolved organic matter, detritus, nitrogen and phosphorus aka. fish waste. I'm not going to copy the whole thing out for you but here is a good paragraph:

"Want a second opinion about feeding? How about Delbeek & Sprung (1994), "...the effort required to feed these items is not worth it in our opinion. Tridacnid clams have been grown successfully in both culture systems and home aquaria for many years without supplemental feedings." And you can get a third opinion from Knop (1996), "Altogether the food requirements of clams is so small that a special feeding scheme for them is superfluous if the tank is populated with a fair number of fish, especially if corals are regularly fed, In such a case a special food destined for the clams would even unbalance the whole system." And here's a forth opinion from Calfo (2001), "Many clams have been maintained years in aquaria without any deliberate feeding, but rather dependent upon light and dissolved compounds." If you're new to the hobby you might not know who the heck these guys are, but I assure you that you'll eventually become familiar with them if you read much. So, there you go."

p176 Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium the biology, identification, and aquarium husbandry of tridacnid clams by James Fatherree. 2006

[The Grizz]

That is some good info there Russel, I always wondered about the feeding habits of clam for the simple reason there is really nothing on the market that I have fornd that is clam specific.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

I always wondered about the feeding habits of clam for the simple reason there is really nothing on the market that I have fornd that is clam specific.

Tropic marine makes a product called "UltraClam".....and although its called "Sponge Power", the KZ product is designed also with filter feeders in mind

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by fishytime

Tropic marine makes a product called "UltraClam".....and although its called "Sponge Power", the KZ product is designed also with filter feeders in mind

I have some of that stuff

[daniella3d]

Fauna marin Ultraclam and sponge power are 2 different thing. Sponge Power is made by zeovit and it's liquid and Fauna Marin Ultraclam is in powder.

I feed my clam DT live phytoplankton. Glad to known they can eat fish waste, as I had read they don't absorb anything else than phyto. That was for crocea clam.

Originally Posted by fishytime

Tropic marine makes a product called "UltraClam".....and although its called "Sponge Power", the KZ product is designed also with filter feeders in mind

[whatcaneyedo]

I just lost my other 5 year old crocea today. It actually belonged to a friend for 1-2 years before I got it so I guess it was probably more like 7 years old. It didn't show any signs of a problem until last night when I saw it spawning. I've had clams spawn before and not die so I wasn't too concerned. Its been about 3 months since I've had a clam die... I only have two left now. A little 3"maxima and a 5" derasa.

[doch]

Well, I'm back in town again (and by in town I mean one of my towns) and both of my remaining clams are open, and happy looking!! Whoohoo!!! I sure am glad that I didn't toss the Maxima before I went out of town last weekend. I was VERY close to doing it. So far so good.

[Nebthet]

Clam deaths seem to be something going on a lot this time of year. I have been hit myself with 2 clam deaths over the last two weeks. Neither of them have had pyramid snails and freshwater dips didn`t help.
It actually looked like something was deteriourating the clam from the foot up. There was no gaping or pinching in the mantle at all, until the day they died where the clam refused to even open and you could see there was something wrong with it.
I had checked all my parameters to see if there was anything in the tank and every thing came out normal.
ammon, nitrite, phosphates = 0
ph = 8.4
alk = 8dkh
salinity = 1.026
nitrates = .05

It sucks, so now I am watching my two remaining clams to see what happens with them.