help me with pm

[jwalters103]

ive been battling pinched mantle for a few months now. i had a large maxima that was well established and added 3 croceas over the summer. one of the new croceas was a little stressed from shpping, plus it had pyramidellids on it. i got rid of the snails and added the croceas. a few days later i noticed the pm. i let it go for a few days and when it didnt get better, i dipped it. the pm seemed to go away, but came right back and this time affecting all my clams. ive been doing dips every couple off weeks since july and still no signs of it letting up, in fact, i just lost my maxima today. what should i do to try to save the other 3 clams?

[a4twenty]

can you post a picture of the infected clams? and your water parameter's?

when you noticed the PM did you dip all the clams or just the one that looked infected? by just dipping the infected clam you are possible allowing the protozoa to remain in the other clams and reinfect the clam you dipped.

you should do a 30 min. FWD of all your clams. pour water slowly along the edge of the mantel and make sure the entire clam is bathed. ( gently slosh the water around ) prepare a good sized water change and change your carbon. ( or add some if your not running it )

HTH

[jwalters103]

unfortunately i cant post pics right now because my cam died on me, but i will try to borrow one over the weekend and get pics up. the first time i did only dip only the infected clam, and realized within a few days how big of a mistake that was, because thats when I started to see signs of pm in the others. from that point on, i dipped all of them at once, and exactly as you said it should be done. also, i dont know if its relevant or not, but the other day i was looking at them trying to figure out what was going on with them, and one of the spots on one of the croceas started to move, in fact, it took off like a bat outta hell. i didnt get that good of a look, but it was definately a flatworm of some kind, small, greyish in color, and moved like speedy gonzalez. im hopin this isnt a new clam predator we have to worry about.

params:
ph--8.2
kh-8
ca-400
no3-0
phos--<.5(i know this isnt helpful, but thats a low as my test kit goes.)
temp---about 80
1.025


ill try to post pics by the end of the weekend

[a4twenty]

you parameters look ok, your ALK and Ca could be a little higher but i don't think that is the problem. you should try to lower your phosphates also but again i don't think that is the cause.

you should keep an eye on the clam with the " flatworm", it may be part of the clean up crew which may be an unfavorable sign ( for that clam ).

have you re-checked them for pyrams.? pyrams. need to be physically removed, FWD have no effect on them.

try to get some pictures this weekend if you can, maybe even camp out with the flash and see if you can get a shot of the "flatworm" or at least the night life.

[jwalters103]

ive rechecked about 20 times for pyrams, but not at night, ill give that a try. the flatworm looked identical to a freshwater planaria (which i realize it obviously wasnt) and it was definately a flatworm of some sort, you could tell by the movement. i can almost guarantee i wont be able to get a pic of it if im lucky enough to spot it again, because the thing was FAST.

[mbbuna]

if it looked like this you need to get it out

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/9343/1003570ha7.jpg

[mbbuna]

look through here and see if you can find it

http://images.google.com/images?q=polyclad+flatworms&ndsp=20&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-51,RNWE:en&start=0&sa=N&filter=0

[jwalters103]

it looks similar to that one, but i only got a brief glance at it and havent been able to find it since. it looks similar to several of the ones on the google page, ill have to go back through it and spend more time to see if i can narrow it down. whats the deal with them?????

btw, mbbuna, your avatar is depressing me because the maxima that i just lost to this was 100% identical to that one---nice lookin clam though

do you think the flatworm would have died since i did a freshwater dip right after i saw it? what are the chances there are more of tem if i spotted one

[jwalters103]

i finally got pix of the clams today, though i dont know how helpful theyll be because the clams retracted every time the flash went off. ill try to get some better pics with the flash off.


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/jwalters103/100_0315.jpg?t=1167877289


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/jwalters103/100_0314.jpg?t=1167877344


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/jwalters103/100_0313.jpg?t=1167877377

[jwalters103]

lets try this again


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/jwalters103/100_0315.jpg?t=1167877507

[jwalters103]

can someone remind me how to post pics again instead of just links?

[mbbuna]

i dont use photobucket so i cant help you there

those flatworms are predatory. if you have one you need to get it out ASAP.

thanks for the complement on the clam. it depresses me also, it was lost to PM a while back.

[a4twenty]

i think the problem is that you need to un-check the box that asks if your want to parse url's. ( it's right below the window you type the message in. the way it is, it automatically adds a {url} and {/url} which tells it to post it as a link.

try taking a pic from above, straight down through the water, leave your lights on and the flash and pumps off.

i don't see anything but it's really hard to tell from those pics because as you said they're retracting from the flash.