tahitian Maxima Clams 6" wild

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

What seems to be the problem with keeping these clams for more than a month?
I have lost 8 of them in the last 6 months. They do great and one morning they are receded and dead.
Everything else is perfect. This is in 2 different tanks that have been established for 5 years with tons of coralline algae.
90 gallon has 2 halides 175 watt 10k with 2 vho actinics 48" and 2 LED royal blue
300 gallon has 6 AI Sol Blue LED's
The 6 2.5-3" maximas and squamosas are doing great for a year now.Only the 6" are dropping like flys.

[reefs4lifee]

Most likely not enough food for everyone. Try raising some plankton if you have the chance.

[moliken]

where u get the maxis from?

[Ertan]

What salinity do you keep your livestock?

[dtt]

Clams are best kept with a chiller at 76 degrees and a Salinity of 1.023-025. Temp control is a real important key.

[Ertan]

There are exceptions like red sea or like tahiti. Tahitian Maximas are collected in lagoon areas where the salinity and temperature is high. I keep my clams steady at 80 degrees and salinity is at 1.027

[dtt]

Have to disagree the water temp in Tahiti is in the mid 70's in the outer atolls where these clams are collected, also the salinity is lower. You would find +80 degree water at the resorts and beaches but not on the atolls. It's even lower where mangroves interact with the sea with the tides. I haver been to Tahiti 3x and when diving the water is cool and very different from the beach or the lagoon. The Max are not collected in the lagoons but well off shore. Just my thoughts

[moliken]

my feeling is that these particular clams have spent a couple years or longer under the exact same conditions day in and day out, so moving them creates undue stress.

[Ertan]

I aggre on where they collected but where they kept before they imported? Pls check ur pm

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

Originally Posted by Ertan

What salinity do you keep your livestock?

1.025 and creeps up to 1.026 by the end of the week.
I usually do 130 gallon water changes a week on a 450 gallon tank.

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

just lost my last 6" maxima last night .
my 3" maximas (3)are perfect as well as my 7" squamosal
my temperature is 77 degrees. LED'S lights.nitrates are 15 ppm-20

[dtt]

130 gallon water changes each week, stability of the water is essential. I don't know if your letting the tank water stabilize by doing a weekly water change, your doing about 1/4 of the tank water. I don't do water changes rarely, about every 6 months if that. Do you do water changes because you are not adding chemical's? Some people never do water changes from what I have read and I see no ill effect of not doing a water change, but I add chemicals to my tank. There is no right or wrong answer to water changes, what ever works for one might not work for the other. If you have no large Max's left I would try and stop the water changes for a month or so and see what happens. What is your fish stock list??

[lamboraf]

Have kept almost all types of clams and as your experiencing with the tahitian Maxima Clams, also had no luck for longer than 3 months.

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

Originally Posted by dtt

130 gallon water changes each week, stability of the water is essential. I don't know if your letting the tank water stabilize by doing a weekly water change, your doing about 1/4 of the tank water. I don't do water changes rarely, about every 6 months if that. Do you do water changes because you are not adding chemical's? Some people never do water changes from what I have read and I see no ill effect of not doing a water change, but I add chemicals to my tank. There is no right or wrong answer to water changes, what ever works for one might not work for the other. If you have no large Max's left I would try and stop the water changes for a month or so and see what happens. What is your fish stock list??

very small fish load in my tanks.
1 mystery wrasse
2 clarkii clowns
1 red fairy wrasee
1 pj cardinal
2 yellow watchman gobies
1 royal gramma
1 chalk bass
1 hortulanus wrasse

trying to keep my nitrates down with RO water changes. I add magnesium,use a calcium reactor, add calcium

3 maximas that are 3" are doing great for many months as well as a huge squamosal clam. something is not right with these clams.

[dtt]

With that many fish in a 430 gallon tank with high nitrates something is a miss in your system setup..filter or water problems, what type of filtration do you use??

[ZephNYC]

IMO your doing too many water changes. You should check out Wayne Shangs book. Wayne is pretty much the only guy in the world with a huge reef ( 700G), packed with ultra grade huge maximas, that have have been spawning on a regular basis for many many years. His tank has high end SPS and a massive goniopora, and guess what his water change schedule is like ? 10% monthly, but he does NOT use new seawater, but OLD WATER FROM HIS FISH ONLY SYSTEM, for the purpose of adding nutrients. He never ever ever adds new water to his famous clam tank.

[CHSUB]

i have 2, both new, the longest about a month. i'm a little concerned after reading your thread. i'm using 400 w mh 10k, so light can't be an issue.

[dtt]

They are looking real good so far!

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

Originally Posted by dtt

With that many fish in a 430 gallon tank with high nitrates something is a miss in your system setup..filter or water problems, what type of filtration do you use??

I have close to 500 total gallons. Theres hardly any fish in this tank. Refugium system with a big ASM Skimmer with dual pumps, Biopellets 40 inch tall canister. Tank is running over 2 years now with a bunch of coralline algae. Im wondering now if the LED lights might be the cause of the trouble. My 3 friends also have AI lighting LED lights and they are losing the large clams too.

[moliken]

for sure ai lighting MUST be supplemented by pure actinics. the 420 nm is not available in most led systems

[dtt]

Your bio load is so small but yet you have high nitrates, I might suggest the bio pellets might be the problem. Your skimmer may also be apart of the problem. Skimmers work in conjunction with the tank so dial it down a bit or shut it off for a few days. Add more fish and feed more, your filtration system is robbing your tank of nutrients. LED lighting is just as good as MH (IMO) with the proper LED selection. Clams need a heavy blue spectrum 20K bulbs with some white thrown into the mix and a high nutrients level in the water. Change from bio pellets to live rock in your filter for filtration and see what happens.

[Giovanni]

I have one I have had about 2 weeks. It never extends very far. I gave it a 25 minute FW dip last night and today it looks better than it has in two weeks. I also suspected it brought in some sort of parasite as the rest of my clams started acting different lately.

[jda]

I have 3 of 4 for over 6 months - got them the day before Halloween. The one that I lost was about 10 days and it never looked right after I got it out of the bag. Each of the three live ones has put on new growth. I use HQI - 3 250W over a standard 120G tank. I personally don't think that LED puts out enough of the right kind of light to keep clams - there is more to this beyond PAR that is just not understood yet. I have an OK bio load with 3 lyretail, 1 purple tang and a baby (like .75 inch) blue line angelfish. I don't really skim anymore since I have the three clams, 3 croceas, 2 baby maximas and a larger blueline derasa - the skimmer is on, but I haven't cleaned the cup in like 6 months. I used a bottle of oyster feast months ago, but have not been adding anything since I ran out.

...so 75% success for me under MH in my SPS tank, and 100% if you take out a bad shipper. I can try and get some pics tonight and especially of the new growth, which I am most happy with.

[Giovanni]

I have a squamosa that has at least doubled in size under AI Sol Blues in the last three years. My 3 inch dresa has also put on good growth in the last 3 months with the AI Sol Blues. I purchased a 2 inch crocea in the last 6 months that has not grown as well, although it has grown. I just acquired a Hippopus and we will see how it does. I also recently purchased two 1.75 inch maximas from LADD that died after about 3-4 weeks, but I know those can be tough. I have a 2.25 squamosa from LADD in the last month that seems to be having a tough time. My large Squamosa was about 2 inches when I got him 5 years ago but is now 9-10 inches. The day after the FW dip I gave all my clams, the large squamosa spawned.

[kenc87]

I also know quite a few local reefers who have struggled to keep these Maximas alive. I'm not sure why but they really don't seem to do well long term in our tanks