corcea clam bleaching slowly, help

[danlu_gt]

I have 4 clams, two of them are corcea clams. I have them for over 3 years now. However, recently one of my corcea clam is bleaching slowly for 3+ months now. What can be the cause? I haven't change the metal halide bulbs yet nor did I lower the distance to the water level. The other corcea clam looks fine and is sitting right next to it. The bleached corcea clam still opens fine during the day and will still react to shadows. From looking at the new shell growth, it's growth is a bit slower now comparing to the healthy corcea.

I'll take picture soon.

 

[Len]

How badly bleached is it? The fact that your specimen sits right next to another T.crocea is what's throwing a wrentch in possible theories. Perhaps the bleaching specimen is more suspectible/sensitive to some water condition issue.

 

[danlu_gt]

Here's the picture. Corcea on the left is bleaching.

 

[WRASSER]

do the corcea do better on the rocks, than in the sand? maybe too much current, too

 

[Unarce]

With clams, these effects could have been set in motion months ago. They could be sick for quite some time before they begin to show signs.

Is there any unusual growth on the shell. I can't really tell from the picture, but there does look to be some algae. Boring algae, perhaps.

As WRASSER mentioned, crocea do much better in the reefscape rather than in the sand.

Good luck!

 

[danlu_gt]

Looks like some bubble algea is on the shell. Next time I stick my hand in the water, I'll scrap off the algea off the shell.

The clams are on rocks under the sand.

You're probably right that sometime had happened to it months ago, but what can cause it to bleach slowly? I don't think it's lighting because the other clams are fine. I did start using ozone 3 months ago with ORP controller. Could the ozone remove too much phyloplantons from the water? What should I do next to help it recover?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[jadran]

That's difficult to diagnose..According to Daniel Knop's "Giant clams" book (great resource btw.. I'd recommend it to everyone interested in keeping tridacnids) many thinks could cause that starting with light, lack of nitrogen in the tank, etc.Pure guess but if haven't changed your bulbs for long long time that might be place to look first..All organisms connected with photosynthesis are going to appreciate that move, and yes to clean lamps regularly..

Had to deal with same issue.. First my derasa and than squamosa start showing signs of central bleaching toward the edges

on the pic above you can see it, I changed HQIs, cleaned lamps and noticed that my clams do much better they didn't recovered completely but bleaching stopped spreading further over the tissue

good luck

 

[Nautilus1]

It is very possible that lighting may be your problem. From my experience i know tridacnids are extremely light hungry animals

 

[WRASSER]

hey jadran, at first glimps of the pic, it look like the pic waz ripped. really nice clams there, keep up the good work :wink:

 

[jadran]

thx. for the compliments, yes I love them big time..Had some ups and downs with them : that bleaching episode, pyrams.. They are quite big for my standards (120g) so that prohibits me to grow them big as I would like to.. In future I might upgrade but time, money..... That tank is just about what my lifestyle allows me..

 

[Tackett]

Is there a reason you are running the ozone? Personally, and this is just me, I dont like ozonizers and UV sterilizers for the fact that they kill alot of benificial micro-organizms as well as destructive ones. I think you should stop the Ozone, change your bulbs and see what occurs.

 

[danlu_gt]

I'm running ozone for two reasons. 1) It clear up the water a lot. Got the same effect of running active carbon, but with ozone, I don't have to keep changing the carbon. 2) I added some new fish. I do have a quarantine tank, but it's only 25gal, so doesn't work well when I add 7 lyratail anthias at once.

I'll turn down the ozone so it'll be on less. My new bulbs should arrive next week. Thanks all for your suggestions.

 

[Tackett]

no problem, let us know how things turn out.