Clam Seperated from Shell

[MinuteJohn]

I've had a Deresa for about 4 months now. It's been doing great but a few days ago I noticed that the clam had detached from the entire left side of it's shell. The clam is still alive although it's mantle doesn't extend as far as it did before. Any ideas what caused this and what I can do about it? I'll try to post pictures when I get home tonight but in the meantime, any ideas?

[kfisc]

This isn't a good sign- your clam may have been severely stressed by water conditions or attacked by a tankmate; did you have any events in the tank recently, such as a live rock avalanche? A temp. or other parameter change? Sometimes their decline is gradual, as when they don't receive correct lighting; they then can appear to "suddenly" go kaput. Someone posted the idea here awhile back of binding the shell together with monofilament line, leaving just enough room for some mantle to extend, in hopes that it may heal- I've never tried this, but fwiw, my hunch is looking at tank conditions first and leaving it alone would be best. Good luck-

[MinuteJohn]

Thank you for your response. Water conditions have been stable, no avalanches. Nothing else in the tank has shown any problems. I think I'll try tying it together a little. Maybe give it time to reattach to the shell.

One other thing just occured to me. It is between an Elegance coral and a Hammer Coral. They are far enough away that they should never touch the clam but maybe they sent out some sweeper tentacles while I wasn't looking. Could that cause this condition?

[kfisc]

Sweeper arms can indeed irritate a mantle; however, I have no experience with elegance corals, and my hammer coral doesn't bother my clams. If the elegance coral does send out sweepers, that sounds plausible- although tearing away from the mantle sounds more like an end stage after a lot of irritation, which could include a period of gaping and other signs of stress.

[mbbuna]

i have to agree with kfisc. most corals dont bother clams but elegance have one of the nastiest stings out there. but you would have seen the clam reacting to this earlier. can you give us a break down on you tank? list everything, all water tests, lighting,fish,crabs,shrimp, everything

[MinuteJohn]

Tank 30L plumbed together with a 35 hex seahorse tank, HOB fuge. Lights are a quad PC fixture, I forget the wattage. Clam is resting in the sand at the bottom of the tank but the 30L is pretty shallow so I figured he was getting enough light. Clam is approx. 5" long; bought him from LFS about 4 months ago. I have seen nothing bothering it and up until a few days ago he was the star of the tank. No gaping, no problems. He is my second deresa, the other was lost to hurricane katrina when my 55gal mixed reef went without power for part of the day.

Occupants:
Tomato Clown
Yellow Watchman Goby
2 peppermint shrimp
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Assorted hermits
Assorted Snails
Emerald mithraz crab
Zoanthids
Frogspawn
Hammer Coral
Elegance Coral
Finger leather
Lots of Caulerpa
Fox Coral
Couple o' shrooms

Water parameters:
Temp 80deg
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5ppm
Calc: 380
Alk: 10dkh

For the first couple of days he looked alright, with the exception of the seperation problem but he seems to be declining steadily. I am leaving town tomorrow night for the weekend and if he continues to deteriorate, I will probably pull him out before I leave. I don't want any problems while I'm gone. I hate to lose him though, he was the first thing people would comment on when they saw my tank for the first time.

Thanks for your help.

[Opcn]

if you're going to be gone I'd say make yourself a clam sandwich for the trip, with that sort of stress sign I'd say hes just about to go, probably not enought light, althought derasas don't nead as much as others. How big is it? How long are the CF tubes? and when you say quad do you mean four double tube lights or like the 18" long quad tube lamps that come out to like 96 watts or so?

[The steven liu]

I am afraid your clam is on its way out. A detached muscle of a clam is difficult to heal in captivity and there is little you can do but pray. Try pry up the detached shell with a rock so the clam is not constantly gaping, this will at least prevent predation from other tankmates to exposed tissue.