What causes clams to die?

I acclimated by floating for 15-20 minutes to temperature acclimate, then added small amounts of my DT water to the bag, 5 minutes apart, 3 times, then put the clam into the DT, never touching air, and burped it.

Neither of them slowly died. The first one that died was fine in the morning and dead by the evening. My second one that died looked strange yesterday morning and then was gone by last night. And it was just as healthy looking as can be yesterday!!

 

Gotcha, but I know nems die from the inside out and may also go from completely fine to dead, just wasn't sure if clams did the same. It's frustrating as heck I know, we need some type of causation to give us some security for future stock.

Do you have any other clams?

 

I have a 7 inch maxima. And I'm worried about him!! I hope it's not something contagious. I know pinched mantle disease is contagious, but it didn't look like that with either of the ones that died.

 

Well it's good you didn't see signs of pinched mantle. I have kept about 4 different clams in my system. I had trouble with my Derasa gaping and then it started losing color, I brought it back to the LFS and it survived, never figured out what happened. I got 2 Maximas afterwards and they are doing well so far.

Just keep an eye on it, I'm sure you are keeping both

 

A couple of things on small clams I know they need to be fed as they do not get enough food from photosynthesis. Were they eating well? Did you burp your clams when you intoduced to the tank (rolling them to ensure no air bubbles were trapped in their mantle)?

I lost a small maxima about 7 days after introduction to the tank. I wrongly blamed Bristle worms based on LFS comments (several were eating the clam when I found it dead). I believe I was not giving it appropriate amounts of food / light after further review of the issue.

I was told clams over 3" are much easier to raise (not sure how accurate this is but I have had no issues with my current clams - Derasa, Maxima). Sorry for the loss KC.

 

Thanks. I have heard bigger clams are easier. It's just hard to find them! I read so much debate about whether or not small clams need to be fed. I was adding phyto to the water.

 

All clams at the size we get in the hobby are fully photosynthetic. No extra feeding is required. Some old bad info is still being passed around regarding this, and it is not true.

Also, clams can spread disease from one to the next. ORA had a big problem with this a few years ago. Every single clam in this one order had died, and several people have had even existing healthy clams they had for years die from the spread of this. I had bought 2 maximas in the order and those clams took out my maxima I had for months before that, along with my awesome blue spotted squamosa I got a couple years previous to that purchase.

 

Man I'm sorry kacy :/
Same thing happened to me with a derasa from ORA... My croceas seem to be doing nice tho still.

 

I had one derasa for about a week and it died.....I never tried again and I have no idea why or how it died.

Maybe one day I will give it another go....

 

Dingo, see ORA does not sell croceas. At one point they did, but that was a long time ago. They have no plans on carrying crocea clams ever again last time I talked to them.

I'm not saying that if ORA carried croceas that they would or would not have issues with them too, but seeing that they come from anywhere but ORA, I think we can point a finger in the proper direction of the issue.