old clams getting some type of disease from new clams?

[isseym328]

Been 4 weeks now since the last time I FW dipped my clams. They still look pretty good. I don't see any pinching at all. I have no idea why this is so since I never used any medication on them. I did however remove everything from that tank except for a clown, some lr and ls. Maybe the protozoans couldn't handle an empty tank? Anyone else got updates?

James

[mbbuna]

mine still seem to be fine, temp still at 74 and all clams back in main tank.

[isseym328]

mbbuna just curious where are you located?

[SSweet1]

I was able to save one small maxima but I lost one small maxima and just a couple days ago my derasa died. After FWD my original large maxima has looked fine for a couple weeks but just today I noticed one small pinched part on the mantle edge- dang it I guess I will have to dip it again. Amazing thing that the small maxima survived, it looked like my dead derasa, it was 1/2 shrunken in to the shell and not opening! Last ditch effort of fwd must have worked because it has been 2 weeks and still looks fine. I was wondering if a sterilizer would kill this protozoan like it does ich but never got an answer so I suppose nobody knows yet. I can not do the medication either, I dont have the means to set up a seperate tank with lights etc. for 6 or more weeks, it is just not reasonable. I will however be setting up a small quarantine tank for any new fish if I ever decide to buy anything new again Carrie

[Scuba Dog]

So far I have lost a total of four maximas...from repeated freashwater dips and the damn protozoan, I have had all my clams in a treatment tank with the metro treatment and have not noticed any pinching......I suspect that the clams I got from the last order had a protazoan infection in a cyst encapsulated form.......I will dose metro for a couple more days and then keep the clams in the Q tank for twenty more days........hopefully when I move them back to the display they wont catch the bugg agen.

[isseym328]

My clams does not seem to be pinching but I'm still afraid to transfer them to my new tank. My teardrop maxima is gapping really wide but otherwise he is look ok. Is anyone having problems with gaping while having PM? Can someone also post a pic of their clams pinching. I'm not sure if mine and it they are it's really slight.

James

[SSweet1]

Mine seemed to gap wide after freshwater dip, or it may be a sign of needing more light, have you changed the lighting? I am going to have to redip my large gold maxima it has a very small curl on one of the mantle petals again after 3 weeks of no signs it is coming back darn it. Carrie

[NewSchool04]

I have had a lot of success with the fresh water dip on my baby Maxima. He looked terrible and now after 3 dips, he's looking much better. I'm going to keep it up each week and more if he begins to pinch again. He's still not totally out, but now about 85%.

[isseym328]

I have not changed the lighting so far. They are still under 250w 10k's. The gaping is not from FW dip since I haven't dipped the clams in over a month now. I really have done nothing different to the tank except that I moved everything else out of there. Only diff i can think of is less nutrients in the water and the water might be a little cooler. I wish there was a way to test for protozoans on my clams. If they are gone I really want to move them to my main tank.

James

[SSweet1]

If you did a freshwater dip and then acclimated them to the new tank wouldnt the dip kill any protozoan that is on there? I was thinking it was getting reinfected over a period of a week to 2 weeks from the water in the original tank. Apparently this protozoan is very long lived however if you are putting it into a new unaffected tank and you freshwater dip first I think it would take care of it. PLEASE let us know if you bite the bullet and try it. I am going to be faced with the same dilema here very soon. I dont plan on keeping a whole set up running for 2 clams permanently either, Carrie

[isseym328]

Hi Carrie,

Hmm that is a thought. I wonder if anyone tried that before? I wasn't even thinking about FW dipping them again. But now that you bring it up it would be a good precaution especially when I know I will have to transfer the clams soon anyway. I might give the clams another couple weeks just to make sure they don't start pinching again. If they don't I will FW dip them one more time (even if they don't show signs of pinching) and transfer them to the new tank. I will let you know. =)

James

[Scuba Dog]

when ever I purchase more clams I will automaticly place them in the Q/ hosiptal tank and perform a weeks worth of metro treatments followed up with at least a week in quarteen...to many storys of healthy clams becoming symptomatic after a few days in the new tank for me not to treat all new clams.

[isseym328]

I have officially moved all three of my clams from the old tank to the new tank. Before I moved them over I gave them a 45 min FW dip. They are looking pretty good right now in the new tank. However it is too soon to tell if there will be any PM. I'll update in a few days and let you know.

James

[SSweet1]

I sure hope it works!! Carrie

[isseym328]

Hi Carrie and everyone else,

Well it's been about a week now since I've added the clams into my new tank. Happily to say they are looking pretty dang good. No signs for pinching. However it has only been a week and I FW dipped them just a week ago. Before that they went more than a month w/o dipping and they looked excellent. I'm hoping this will be the last I see of the protozoan in my tank. I will have to be more careful from now on when I add clams to my tank. I don't know if this method of FW dipping then adding to a new tank works because we all have diff water parameters and creatures in our tank. For some reason my infection just went away on its own (or I hope it did) and it might have been because of my almost empty tank or the fact that I FW dip them for a very long time. Anyways if anyone else had success with their methods please post them here.

James

[SSweet1]

Well the other maxima I purchased died, it was inevitable I suppose. It looked good for awhile then I would have to dip it and lately the dips didnt work or would only work for a day or two. Oh well I am just happy that my huge maxima seemed to have been cured I have only had to dip it twice. It has been looking great for a few weeks. Soon I am going to be combining tanks and I really dont want any contamination so please keep me informed of how yours are doing now that you put them in your new tank. Carrie

[Vili_Shark]

What's the bottom line.....does Metro works???

[Scuba Dog]

Bottom line is at one time I had a dozen clams, and recieved some contamined clams with the protazoan that spread to all of my clams. I fWD them all countless times just for the protazoan to come back....Then I set up my 20 gallon Q/hosiptal tank with a 250 DE pendant(I have the same exact system on my display) I treated all the clams with metro and lost two maxs early on...then after the 10 day treatment plan was over I lost a few more in the latter weeks....

Two weeks ago I moved them back to the main display and no sings of pinching has returned....bottom line I started out with 12 clams now I have 6....Id say yes metro works but the stress of the protazoan and the treatment plan definitly puts some pressure on the clams...

I would not place any clam in a display with a Q period...So basicly it was a $800.00 screw up on my part for not placing the new clams in a Q tank right of the bat...Im completly disgusted and doubt ill ever order anymore clams agen. at one point I was ready to flush the remaining clams I had down the drain...

[Vili_Shark]

I got some bad news/experience, call it whatever you like.
I had a clam with very little signs of PM that died something like 2.5 months after I introduced it.
I did not Q it.
But even if I would....so what??
It's too long time to know if something is wrong, it didnt show any signs at the first month, it was the only clam introduced.

[isseym328]

All clams are healthy. Been almost three weeks now in the new tank. I think if there was any protozoan infection it was left in my old tank. The clams are doing well and the clams that was already in the new tank show no signs of PM. I can't explain in detail why my clams healed by themselves. But for some reason they are to get rid of the infection. I did give them really long FW dips sometimes (hours). Not sure if that is the reason though. I suggest trying to put them in tanks where there's no other inhabitants. Again they were in a 20g with 250w MH, 78 degree temp, and live sand. There was nothing else. The protozoans probably couldn't survive the barren tank.

[menace]

Just wanted to give an update about my clams. I've had similar situation as isseym328, cant explain it. I've lost 4 clams during all this. At first I was just giving the FWD every week to a week and half. Before actually starting the QT to get ready to dose with metro, on my last dip I lost my smallest maxima. So after the last dip, my crocea still had a bit of the edge of mantle curled. I then setup the QT and place them all in. It only had some pieces of live rock from my tank, with existing water from that tank. 5 gallons. the other 5 gallons was new make up water. After a week being in the QT the crocea's mantle was looking better. never dosed the metro. Its been a little over 5 weeks now in QT and 6 maxima's and 1 crocea are all looking great. I've even saw some new shell growth. Not sure if Im going to return them to the original tank.

[isseym328]

That is great news Menance. Glad your clams are on their way to full recovery.

I never had to add any medication to my Qtank. For some reason the infection just went away on its own. I believe the fact that the tank had nothing else but live sand (with pods and such) really contributed to the success of the clams. I think more people should try this method instead of dosing medication. More natural this way and it seems to work! At least for Menance and I.

After two months of being in the Qtank I put the clams back to my main tank. It has been at least another two months now and I have since then added new clams. They are all looking good and healthy. I think we found a way to get rid of this protozoan infection w/o using any chemicals.

[kuifjetintin]

I have 21 clams. They all have PM. All the clams are in a small tank that is in circulation with the main tank. The advantage is that I can feed the clams easily wiht phytoplankton in this small tank.
They have been very bad for some time (3 month ago). Now they are better but the PM has not disappeared for 100%. Anyway the situation is under controle. My experience is that the clams get better when feed with phytoplankton. It's strange that, when I put a clam back in the main tank, the PM comes back very soon. Why ? Too bad, they'll stay in the smaller tank. And don't think I'll try any medication. My feelings tell me that excellent treatment will cure them.

They're all beauties !
For pictures look here :

http://www.zeewaterforum.org/forums/...9&page=4&pp=25

messages nr 86 and 96

[Vili_Shark]

Hi!

Isseym328,
Thanks for sharing the info, so you mean that you took out the clams to a QT tank, left them there for like 2 month and made agressive FWD .
1.Did you use your old tank water?
2.How often did you change the water in the QT tank?
3.How did you maintain the Ca level in the QT tank?
4.Now that you got the clams back to the original tank , did you change anything in the tank?salt? supplements?any water parameter have changed that you know of?

Meance,
Thanks for sharing the info, I understand that since you put the clams in the QT tank you did not FWD them right?
1.How often are you changing the water in the QT?
2.How do you maintain the Ca level?

kuifjetintin,
Those are really nice looking clams, I dont have a clue about what's written in the site, but I'd like to know, in post #90, what is Freddy doing? dosing phyto or is it something else?

Thanks my friends, I hope this will help getting progress in curing the PM problem.

[isseym328]

Morning,

I did not do aggressive FWD in the QT tank. Not sure if you read the old posts in this thread but if you did I just recently (last few months) moved everything from my old tank to a new tank. The clams were the last inhabitants left in that tank. So in a way I did not move the clams to a QT tank. They were still in the old tank just that they were left there because I was afraid they will spread the infection to my new clams. Before I moved everything I had to FWD them once every few weeks because the PM came back quite frequently. However after moving all other inhabitants from the tank I noticed that I didn't have to FWD dip anymore. I think I might have dipped twice and that was it. So here's my reponse to your questions:

1. Yes
2. Not very often. I think I had them in the tank for two months and I probably changed water 2-3 times.
3. Did not maintain Ca level. The 3 clams were small and there was nothing else in the tank.
4. I'm sure the parameters are a little different because I have more bioload in the new tank. but I don't think that contributed to the well being of the clams AFTER they were moved.

I believe the protozoans died off in the old tank before I moved the clams over to the new tank. they probably did not have enough nutrition to last them because the clams were the only inhabitants. Like some people said in this forum(or was it the other forum) the protozoans might have other hosts besides clams, and if that was the case by isolating the clams they starved. Here's exactly what I had in the 20g tank besides the clams so maybe you can try imitating it:

250w MH
powerhead(med flow) and heater(temp at 78)
about an inch of live sand
tank water(not fresh saltwater) of about 1.022
few pieces of small LR

Hope this helps. =)