Help, my clam looks stressed!!!

[spyderreef]

I bought a blue max. clam, about 4". My fish guy told me that for him to do well I should place him on a rock. Well I did that and he kept falling over. I have given up on putting him on a rock and will let him be on my crushed coral base. I feel sick, it looks stressed. Besides just leaving him alone, what else can I do. I can't believe all of the stuff I have been though in the last two weeks. I lost an elegance, my xenias went to war with my mushrooms (very few made it), my green coral started to rot away so I cut it. I can't loose my clam too. Help.

 

[bobothewizard]

Somethings wrong with your water, might wanna check the levels again. Something is definately wrong in there.

 

[jonthefb]

what you can try doing would be to go to your lfs, and get a half an old clam hell 9they probably have one lying around somewhere, fill it with a scoop of your crused coral and then place your clam in it. the calm will attatch his byssal galnds to the inside of the shell and then you can simply place the whole setup wherever you like. but with all that stuff going wrong i would also look at water params and lighting to see if somethign ther might be amiss!
good luck
jon

 

[spyderreef]

I am going to do a water test now. I have two metal-halide 175w 10000. I placed the clam directly under one of the lights but at the bottom of my tank. Should I move it higher?
As for the rest of my problems my mushrooms and xenias grew
together.
I think that they were too close and the xenia started stinging the mushrooms. I had quite a bit of brown slime that I tried to remove with a siphon. It could be possible that some of that slime landed on other things. Everything else in my tank looks great. Hammer and frogspawn are bigger than ever. Trumpet coral and fingering leather also show no signs of stress. It makes me believe that it was a defensive dipute in my tank and not a water problem, although because of it I may have one.
The elegance that I lost was brand new to my tank (same time as the clam).
I placed in on the bottom of my tank and my clown fish covered it up. I guess it did not like it new the anemones. By the time I moved it, it was too late. I watched it slowly disappear.

 

[jonthefb]

i don tthink that your xenia stung your mushrooms, xenias dont have nematocycts (the microscopic stinging cells), however mushrooms do. i think that the mushrooms stung your xenias, however, i have xenia and shrooms growing around each other and i have not had a problem with either yet. what size tank do you have? your lighting sounds fine for a clam, depending on your tnak size. what are your water parameters like? hows our calcium and alk levels?
good luck
jon

 

[spyderreef]

pH 8.0
alk 3.0
CA 400
phosphate 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
salinity 1.022
125 gal. tank
Here is a pic of the before. There is nothing left of the mushrooms. The surviving xenias are on the glass and the rock above. I have more xenias and mushrooms in my tank so all is not lost. All the mushrooms in my tank were either volunteers or came from the 3 mushrooms that I bought when I first set up my tank.

 

[spyderreef]

try again

 

[bobothewizard]

All those are too close together and killing each other? I dunno that would be my only guess, hell im not even sure if they could kill each other.

 

[spyderreef]

jonthefb,
I read your other reply to a post about clams. I do have DT's phytoplankton but I am not aware of how exactly to use the product. Do I just pour it in my tank or do I use a baster and shoot it in the direction of the clam? I do have a protein skimmer that I do not turn off. I don't believe what I have is that powerful.
Thanks
Lori

 

[spyderreef]

Here is an after pic. The mushrooms that you see there are also gone. I use to work in a greenhouse and to be it reminded me of root rot. I have no idea what set off this chain of events.

 

[josh]

Hi,
DT's dosing instructions are on the back of the bottle. Just dump it in after lights out, you can leave the skimmer on.
BUT, clams over 3" really don't need all that much "food", at that size they mainly use light as they become photosynthyically capable. As for placing him on rocks, yes he will enjoy being on the rocks but many clams seem to hop around and fall off. I would get a oyster shell and take half of it and place the clam on the shell. This will allow a place for his foot to attach but he won't be able to hop around as much.
As for the elegance, those are hard corals to keep anyway, not to mention you clowns took too it right off the bat. This more than likely stressed the heck out of it.
~ Ok I just went back and looked harder at the pic. You have a lot of softies and LPS right together, maybe even touching in places. FOR SURE the LPS would take care of the softies, they have decent sized stinging / feeding tentacles that reach out at night. So they can kill from a far. Actually I am suprised that the LPS didn't suffer as well, mushrooms are anemones and have the same stinging capabilites of an anemone. So you bacially have 2 of the best chemical warfare and killing sp. right there together.
Sorry for your losses!