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rkm

rkm

Member
Today my brother noticed some issues with his giant maxima. His tank is 135 gal, 150# LR, wet dry, skimmer etc. etc. he has 2 250 MH's and 2 t-5's for lighting. His water is not perfect. it is like a point off on all the params. His Ca is real low he says. he has a drip tester and the the color flashed on the first drip:nervous:
Well here is the symptom of the clam. He is retracting in his shell. The shell is not opened up that much and he isn't exactly coming out to say Hi if you know what I mean. You can see the white of the shell. he is asking me for help. I told him that he is needing CA badly. I hope that is all he needs.
 
rkm

rkm

Member
he says it moves slowly. Sorry I cant give any spacific tests on the water. I am just going on what he tells me. He asked if it were going to live or not, all I could tell him was that mine died that looked like that. Mine was from being a beginner and not having the correct lighting. Now with the lighting everything is good with me and clams.
 
rkm

rkm

Member
I will call him in a minute to see what his water is like exactly. I did give him my half gal of liquid CA. to dose to bring the levels up.
 
rkm

rkm

Member
Here is an update.
The clam is 6-7 inches long and he had it since the beginning of summer.
Nitrites .2 not even.
Nitrates 2.5
Pos .2
CA 250
Salinity is a tad lower than normal.
temp is 80
His PH test is not available He needs a new tester.
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
I don't see a problem with those numbers, what's a "tad low" Salinity...
You might want to check the clam for small small snails.
 
rkm

rkm

Member
He uses a floating thermometer/salinity thing. It is a hair low. So I am sure a few cups of salt should straiten it out.
Small snails:notsure: funny you said something about that. He has a TON of baby snails. His tank is a breeding ground for them. Or at least that is what it seems like. Is it a spacific type of snail that can hurt it? What do we look for? Thanks
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
this snail will be eating the mantel of the clam...they are very small so it might be hard to see..
So your saying you don't know what the salinity is?
 
rkm

rkm

Member
No I don't know the salinity. I have a refracter. I will test that for him tomorrow. He has a floating one with a green tab. The tab is at the water surface instead of the water surface in the middle of the tab. I would have to say it is somewhere very near .020 the way he discribed it.
 
rkm

rkm

Member
Here is an update until I can go over to his house. He picked up the clam to look at it's foot. The Clam let go easily of the small rock it was on. He did find 2 worms under the clam. he scooped them up and got rid of them. I may know a little more infor tomorrow.
 
viet-tin

viet-tin

Active Member
Maybe putting him in a type of container within his tank for awhile may help? And maybe he could try feeding it but i dont think that would be necessary.
 
rkm

rkm

Member
The worms were a orangeish red colored millipede. Here are some of the missing tests
CA 200
9.6 KH
3.426 Alk
Ph is 7.7
Salinity .020
At the moment we are drawing up some water for a water change. We are adding Kent Liquid CA to bring up the CA levels.
The clam is still alive. It has pulled itself inside of the shell. It reacts to me casting a shadow over it. Any more help would be appreciated.
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by Ryan Miller
The worms were a orangeish red colored millipede.
The worms are probably small bristle worms, they shouldn't hurt the clam..
 
viet-tin

viet-tin

Active Member
Im not so sure but i think if you were to bring up your Ca it will lower your alk. Im not 100% on that though so maybe golfish or someone can clear that up.
 
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