Bad Clam Luck

[DaveKGold]

Hi,

So I bought a nice Crocea at the CFM, get it home, and it died the next day. :Cry:

My water chemistry is pretty good, and as far as I know I don't have any pests.

The one comment that I have is that I rushed the acclimitization a bit because I had a dinner to go to. I think it acclimitized about 45 minutes before I put it in, but it seemed ok until the next morning.

My hermits were all over it right away cleaning off the shell but they were leaving the flesh alone, but as I said it is dead now.

Any thoughts?

One last comment, I did dip the coral I got at CFM. I noticed an aptasia on one piece though.... debating taking the frag out and scrubbing it off before putting it back. I think I can do so without damaging the zoas on the frag piece.

 

[Emac909]

Do u go through a lot of sails too? Does it seem like u all ways have to replace clean up crew? It could be a polyclad flatworm. I had one eat my clams in my last tank.

Here's what they look like
http://youtu.be/seNa2SwLnFY

 

[DaveKGold]

Sails? Not sure what you mean by that. I have not seen anything like what is in your photo.

 

[DaveKGold]

How did you catch it and get it out of your tank?

 

[Emac909]

Sails? Not sure what you mean by that. I have not seen anything like what is in your photo.

Sorry snails.

 

[DaveKGold]

Some of the clam flesh is left....no signs of parasites.

 

[Emac909]

How did you catch it and get it out of your tank?

Had to totally break down tank and dry out all the live rock

It's a really fat chance u will ever see these while lights r on. I found that one at 2am doing a flash light check. I found it eating my clam.

If u want to check to see if u have these. Go to staters or super market and buy a large uncooked shrimp. One night after the lights go out tie the shrimp to a peace of liverock using fishing line. I suggest leave the line long enough to stay out of the water so if u find one u can pull the flatworm out with the shrimp and rock all at once. Place the shrimp on the sandbed about 3" away from it live rock in tank. Check the bait at like 3am.

 

[DaveKGold]

I will have to try that. Thanks for the tip. I haven't been loosing snails at a noticable rate. Every once in a while one dies but that's it. Is there a type of snail they prefer?

 

[Emac909]

Nope they eat all crustations snails, clams, shrimps, crabs,.....

 

[Emac909]

If ur loosing more then 3-4 a year then u might have one or more of these.

 

[DaveKGold]

I suppose it's possible. The quick clam loss makes me suspicious. I figured a loss of some cleanup crew members was nothing unusual. I have also lost shrimp but previously had a flame hawk and I know he munched on at least one (see photo).

How about the chemical products that are out there, Flatworm eXit and such? I've seen some posts about that up here, but mostly about the kind that are on corals, and not the clam eaters.

Also I do have a six line....I hear they are very good at controlling pests.

 

[Emac909]

The only thing that killed it was Bayer insect killer. But a whole tank treatment might b hard.
I found 3 of them in my last tank. I did tests on them. Flatworm exit has no effects. I dam near used a whole bottle in a quart of water. It didn't phase it. Fresh water did did nothing. Now if u left it in fresh water it would kill it. Coral rx had no effect either. It technically not a flatworm. It's more like a nudi but classified in the flatworm family.

 

[Six2seven]

I've never even heard of that kind of worm. good info, thanks!

 

[DaveKGold]

I found 3 of them in my last tank.

Well I'm going to set up the trap that you recommended and see if I can catch one.

Thanks for the info on Flatworm eXit. If you were going to treat with Bayer, you'd have to take all the rock out, treat everything, then put it back. I think at this point I will try catching them to eliminate them rather than emptying everything out, especially as I'm not sure that is the problem.

Were you able to remove all three by catching them or....?

 

[Emac909]

I had more then 3 for sure, I truly couldn't tell how many I had. I was still loosing cuc when the tank crashed. These guys were the main resion I broke the tank down tho.

The first I caught was on my clam. Then I started putting thing together after researching these devils. I was loosing cuc like crazy and I had a cleaner shrimp get eaten. The other 2 I caught by the bait shrimp meth. Yes make sure u have caught a polyclad flatworm befor doing anything drastic.

 

[pgr11]

Did you dip the clam? If so I'm not sure that you can dip them

 

[DaveKGold]

The clam is dead. I took it out of the tank. I might use what's left of it as bait in a trap.

 

[mark.a.smith405]

I dip my clams in revive they have been fine, cant say about Bayer though

 

[pgr11]

I dip my clams in revive they have been fine, cant say about Bayer though

Cool. Good to know

 

[DaveKGold]

Some other people on a thread on Bayer have said it's okay on clams, but you might want to search on that and read it on your own....