Crocea Jumped Ship

I woke up to go to work this morning, checked my tank and my Corcea was on the sandbed?!? Added him 1/26/13...and has been on my rockscape up until last night. Next to him (detached) was what looks to be the threads that he attached himself to the rocks with. He was on his side but opened. Is this common for them to move like this if they dont like their placement? I would of thought that he would have done it sooner then now? I didnt have time to check water parameters but will do so when I get home. Is this signs of something I should be concerned about? never seen anything bother it, so not sure of the cause

 

Yes something was off by his placement according to your clam. Reposition him or let him be, he'll move again if hes not satisfied.

 

Mine just did the same thing today. Hes been on the top of my live rock for months and later today hes in the back of the tank. Weird.

 

Excessive flow is a big contributor to "clam bail"...if the clam's mantle does more than the occasional easy lift, there's likely too much flow in that area.

Lighting can be another reason...have you replaced lamps, or adjusted the photoperiod?

Any new additions that may be picking at the clam, or new/growing corals that may be stinging it?

Clams are also sensitive to water swings, particularly pH and temp, which can also cause them to bail.

HTH

 

well came home from work yesterday and the crocea had passed. bulbs havent been changed recently(mh 150hqi and 2 65w actinics aprox 5 months old) and parameters have been stable (salinity 1.024, temp 78 ,ph 8.0, nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0,cal 440, phosphate 0). I have had small algae outbreak recently i think from overfeeding? that ive been working on fixing, so im assuming that although my test show 0 nitrate/.08 phosphate with a red sea kit(shows 0/0 with my api kit) they must be present at higher levels, but thought they would need to be a little higher to create issues. I also have a maxima clam and deresa and both doing well. I did notice that the mantle on the crocea did have a tear(maybe 1-2 mm) in it so im thinking it was damaged during the fall and took this long to kill it. I have never seen anything bother it, but im not watching it 24/7 so anything is possible. closest thing to it was another clam so dont think it could have been stung by anything..... it was opened the night before then dead the next day. as far as flow i did change my powerhead placements about 2 weeks prior to it "jumping" but it resulted in the same flow pattern over the crocea where the mantle wasnt getting blown around.

 

Sorry to hear about your clam!

I had a clam awhile ago that kept "bailing". At least I thought that was what it was doing. Turns out my strawberry top snail kept pushing it off the rock. So if you have any of those "bull dozer" type snails, that is another possibility. This probably wouldn't kill the clam though.

As others have said, the claim bailing is a sign of some sort of distress. There are a number of possibilities, including disease. I have heard a certain disease has plagued Crocea clams lately, and has caused Canada to restrict their importation. I'll try to dig up some more information on that.