# Cause of Clam death



## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Friend has had 2 different clams die in the last several months.
Everything seems fine-But levels have not been checked-
What would be the main cause of a clams death?
Having lighting issues and calcium issues-this I do know


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

i think you should definetly tell your freind to check his params. would of thought thats the first thing you do when you have any sort of death.

Clams should also have a stable calcium and alkalinity level. The clams shell is calcium carbonate based, thus why clams are calcareous invertebrates. An alkalinity of around 8-13dKH and a Calcium of 400-450ppm is recommended. Stable water conditions including pH, temperature and salinity should also be maintained at all times to prevent any stress on the clam.

there are several reasons why clams would die. its hard to say without more information on the setup


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Trigger lover said:


> i think you should definetly tell your freind to check his params. would of thought thats the first thing you do when you have any sort of death.
> 
> Clams should also have a stable calcium and alkalinity level. The clams shell is calcium carbonate based, thus why clams are calcareous invertebrates. An alkalinity of around 8-13dKH and a Calcium of 400-450ppm is recommended. Stable water conditions including pH, temperature and salinity should also be maintained at all times to prevent any stress on the clam.
> 
> there are several reasons why clams would die. its hard to say without more information on the setup


Why of course I tell him to check Params-He is just thick headed is all...Not much I can do about that.
Ph is off-I know this-Just don't know how bad is all.Temp is stable.Salinity is fine.
Calcium is low though-This is most likley the cause right....


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

yeh, pH and calcium should be sorted out. thats probably the cause. but from what you said the the snail thread seems like your buddy's tank is setup poorly so there could be dozens of possible reason why your clams and snails are dropping dead. im guessing the reason are related. this is the problem when you have a poor setup. can;t keep track of whats going on so when something does go wrong you have problems fixing it. shame really.


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Trigger lover said:


> yeh, pH and calcium should be sorted out. thats probably the cause. but from what you said the the snail thread seems like your buddy's tank is setup poorly so there could be dozens of possible reason why your clams and snails are dropping dead. im guessing the reason are related. this is the problem when you have a poor setup. can;t keep track of whats going on so when something does go wrong you have problems fixing it. shame really.


I agree with ya totally-It is a shame...
Hopefully one day he will come around-
I do have him coming over to view my setup though and walk him through a few steps-
So hopefully once I show him these threads and responses he might decide to change things up a bit..

Only time will tell though-

Appreciate said info greatly Sir...


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

No worries AK

im sure Skunk will pop in aswell, he might know a little more.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

You would have to be more specific about the deaths... did they just not open one day and slowly die off or have they been eaten from the inside out.... There are tons of predators to clams, flatworms, bristleworms, fireworms, crabs etc.... so its entirely possible that a hitchhiker is killing them

Another thing is once a clam dies, it rots your water pretty bad, so i am sure hes having some param problems for sure if the two clams were left in there until they were just shell. You can prob expect some negative effects on things from that also.

If i were you i would just go check his params for him... then when they are screwed up you can give him the "Hey dipshit" talk and hopefully get him on track, and not flushing money down the drain simply because of laziness


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

if this is the same friend that has clams and snails diying he more then likely has a preditory worm.. check the clam shell for holes.


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