t. crocea mantle troubles

[Mark Henry]

Hello!

I bought a t. crocea at my LFS Wednesday this week. What I thought was
white colorations in the blue mantle are now turning out to be some kind
of mantle rot. Here are some photos (warning: they're rather large! the
last is the smallest at 250k) for reference:

http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/images/clam_1.JPG
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/images/clam_2.JPG
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/images/clam_3.JPG

Any idea what's going on and what I might be able to do to fix it? My
tank parameters are good, ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite .1, PH 8.4,
salinity 1.023. It's a 60g tank with MH lighting (the clam was under MH
at teh LFS). I spent 1.5hr slowly drip aclimating the clam and never
allowed it to contact air during the transfer.

I'm concerned because this was apparently starting at the LFS before I
brought it home and it has accelerated over the past 24hrs. The clam is
still light and touch responsive. I have also noticed that some t.
crocea at clamsdirect.com exhibit similar scaring/molting/etc in the mantle.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

mark h

[Susan]

I hate to say it but to me it looks like it may be dying. Clams generally
start to loose their color when they are dying. Your nitrites need to be
zero. I recently lost a whole 30 gallon tank (around several hundred
dollars worth) of fish and inverts. from my nitrites barely spiking from
some bad macro algae I purchased. I would recommend getting that to zero
ASAP just from my personal experience. Best way is to do some partial water
change and find where the nitrite source is in your tank. Good-Luck with
your clam. They are a neat addition to a tank.

Susan :)
"Mark Henry" > wrote in message
. ..
> Hello!
>
> I bought a t. crocea at my LFS Wednesday this week. What I thought was
> white colorations in the blue mantle are now turning out to be some kind
> of mantle rot. Here are some photos (warning: they're rather large! the
> last is the smallest at 250k) for reference:
>
> http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/images/clam_1.JPG
> http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/images/clam_2.JPG
> http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/images/clam_3.JPG
>
> Any idea what's going on and what I might be able to do to fix it? My tank
> parameters are good, ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite .1, PH 8.4, salinity
> 1.023. It's a 60g tank with MH lighting (the clam was under MH at teh
> LFS). I spent 1.5hr slowly drip aclimating the clam and never allowed it
> to contact air during the transfer.
>
> I'm concerned because this was apparently starting at the LFS before I
> brought it home and it has accelerated over the past 24hrs. The clam is
> still light and touch responsive. I have also noticed that some t. crocea
> at clamsdirect.com exhibit similar scaring/molting/etc in the mantle.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> mark h