Clam Pinch

[ScottM]

Any one ever had it and sucessfully get rid of it?
loosing mine to it one by one...... Fresh water dips unsucessful.

 

[ScottM]

to read more.....
the fresh water dips seem to be causing more harm than good.

http://www.reefland.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8607
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=169654#169654

 

[JD46]

I have not experienced this problem, but this guy seemed to be on to something

http://www.reefland.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8021

I would start scrubbing scutes and see if conditions improve. That would be less stressful than the FW dips. Plus, if this condition is a result of some small creature, it may explain why the dips work to some extent.

 

[TheUltimateNoob]

so this pinching is being caused by some other organism on the clam? or is it some disease?

 

[jango]

this thread has some input..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=409868

 

[JustDavidP]

I have a clam at my office that is real easy to take care of. It doesn't eat much, doesn't get pinched mantle (any more) and tolerates swings in temperature, salinity, and even humidity.

My Paperweight!

This was my first death due to pinched mantle. I did a FW dip and it took it over the edge. I never found snails, worms or anything else that would irritate the clam.

FYI - my croceas from B, and my squamosa are all healthy. Though the squamosa showed signs of PMD soon after the maxi did. I dipped the crocea and again, nothing came out. It is looking better.

Dave

 

[Armando]

i tried to follow all the threads but too much blah blah I gave up.

if someone could tell me what are the symptoms i should be looking for i'd appreciate it.

 

[Greg Hiller]

I've never heard of 'pinched' clam, like Armando, I was too impatient to read through the threads. FWIW, I don't think I'd ever consider a FW dip for any clam. If you are trying to get something off the shell of the clam you could remove it from the water, get it to close up, and then SPRAY tap water or other stuff onto it. You need to of course may sure the clam is well closed and none of the 'stuff' you are spraying on it gets onto the clam's tissue. About 3 months ago I used this technique on a beautiful T. maxima from someones tank (they were shutting it down) that was COVERED in red flat worms, Bryopsis algae, and just about every other undesirable thing you can imagine. I used 70% ethanol as one of the things I sprayed on the clam shell to kill the algae, then sprayed tap water to rinse it all away, then a quick dip in a bucket of tank water, then into the tank. Worked well, clam survived and growing, and nothing on the shell survived.

Please be careful if you try what I've decribed above.

 

[skatezen]

Scott as you know mine died... but when I did the FW dip it did seem to help with the pinching. I don't know if this is what took it out though.

 

[ScottM]

if someone could tell me what are the symptoms i should be looking for i'd appreciate it.

Pinching is when a section of the mantle is recessed into the clam while the rest is fine. it looks as if the mantle is pinched. over time this recession occurs all the way down the mantle until the clam cannot get suffcient lighting. it then dies. Minh thinks the cause is a small parasite that is irritating the mantle. i moves from clam to clam. i found that the ones placed far away from the infected have not showed signs of pinching.

Just Lost another clam today from it. down to 5 from 14

I have talked with others and we are thinking that this may have come from the clams direct group buy.


heres a good pic of pinch on the blue maxima

 

[ScottM]

heres another pic of early pinch

 

[Scuba_Dave]

Wow, 9 clams lost, that IS a bummer. I felt bad when I lost 2....

 

[ScottM]

i expect to loose all but 1.

 

[davidrupe]

Thats it, no clams for me.

 

[Ray]

Dare I ask what 5 are left?

 

[Syris]

Sorry to hear about your losses.
FWIW I had a crocea clam "pinch" 2 weeks after putting in tank back in Dec03. I did the FW dip for the clam and it has been fine.
I bought another clam (maxima) about 4 weeks ago and it started to pinch 1 week later, followed by the crocea pinching again a couple days later. I FW dipped them both and they both are doing great now for 3 weeks.
The FW dips I did consisted of RO/DI water at the same temp + PH as the tank and for 30 min. The clams fully opened back in the tank after a couple hours.

Minh suggest FW dipping ALL of the clams from the same tank otherwise the clams can be re-infected. Of course FW dipping a clam that is already too far gone will not help, there are no guaranties.

Minh Nguyen quote "After tried and dipped the smaller clams several times. They recovered but will get infected again; I decided to dipped all the clams including my Gigas. I was very hesitance because I know that Gigas are very sensitive to salinity change, not like Maxima or Crocea.
Finally I bite the bullet and dipped every single one of my clams. This took care of the problem. None of my clams died from the last water dipped, including my Gigas.
Now all the clams are healthy again and growing again"

 

[Clam Man]

scott sorry to here that you are loosing your clams hope you can save the rest

 

[ScottM]

Of course FW dipping a clam that is already too far gone will not help, there are no guaranties.

yeah, i didn't realize just how serious it was until its too late. the ones i have FW dipped have had no luck.
i will try scrubbing the shells tomorrow to remove all hiding spots( Sponges and such)

 

[ScottM]

you know your clam was big when the disposal won't chop up its remains....

 

[JustDavidP]

I lost my second clam this weekend. It was the second from the group buy. My croceas look okay, but now my squamosa began to pinch again. I can dip the squamosa, but the three croceas have bored into a piece of LR that is about 1 foot long and 9 inches wide. I can't get the rock out of the tank without causing serious problems... *sigh*