Someone has to know
what is going on with my reef. A few months ago I took in 3 Tahitian clams ( those huge ones with the thick shells, pretty rare) for a friend. They were sick in his tank. At the time I had a Squammy, a Derasa and two Maximas in my tank. Within days the friends started dying. One by one. It looked like pinched mantle but it wasn't. A week later mine started dying. I freshwater dipped them as the books prescribe but no help.
I waited a month and added some new Maximas. They were large, over 5 inches and one smaller Derasa. Everything was fine until one day I came home from work and one of the Maximas was dead. The insides were intact. 2 months later and the other maxima dies. Open and fine in the morning, dead when I got home from work. The insides were eaten out and my 3 foot Snowflake eel was hanging out by it. Now I have seen him eat dead clams before but never an alive one. Hmmm maybe a rouge eel?
Two days later and my Derasa was dead. Same deal, open and fine in the morning, dead at 5:00. No eel in site and the clam was right where he always sets so he was not attacked by the eel.
My water conditions are perfect, my SPS, LPS grow like weeds and look great. I keep Azoox corals so the tank gets fed a mixture of phyto and various Fauna Marin products every hour. Fish and everything in the tank look great including some very sensitive gorgonias and black corals..
I spent some time looking at the Derasa and on one side of the shell there are little thin red lines that look like blood vessels in the shell. It is on the inside of the shell. One of them was 1/4 out of the shell and moving around. Are these some kind of parasitic worm? Can I ever keep clams again? Help, as I love them.