Clams are Tasty

So the pinchy clam died last week. One minute he was just pinchy on one small part of the mantle, next minute empty shell. I hate it when that happens. No more small clams for me. Its just too hard to keep them alive it seems, whether its some strange affliction or their predilection for laying on their sides (even when you prop them up with something on either side).

So this week I had a bit of a rockslide, a coral landed on one of my clams and tore a small part of the mantle. In the ensuing days, one of my fish decided this was tasty and went to town on that clam and 2 others. It got to the point where I couldn't even see the mantle because they were retracting it so much but eventually if I spent enough time in the room with the tank they would open their shells, this is what made me think it was the fish. They wouldn't nip while I was looking (yes I know, anthropomorphic). By the time I got them out of the tank there were 4 clams affected. I still have one clam in the tank, its at the opposite end and is unaffected but I will be keeping an eagle eye as its my prized maxima with the blue spots on the brown mantle.

I haven't managed to lay blame on whoever was the culprit, I strongly suspect either my wrasse or the scopas tang. The scopas was very interested in the clams and they were clean as whistles on the outside but I didn't see him nip the mangles at all but he just spent too much time around them for my liking. As for the wrasse, well he's just a rather determined critter and has a taste for meatiness so he's on the list.

Anyway, the clams are at the LFS. I hope they do well there. Once they heal up I'll try adding them to the tank again. I think with the torn mantle something was released into the water, much like sharks and blodd and a feeding frenzy ensued (although a sneaky one because they didn't do it when I was in the room).

In other news, I've scrapped the calcium reactor and gone with an aquatronica dosing pump. I'm hoping this will be more successful in keeping my parameters in line. Magnesium has fallen way off lately despite my cramming the reactor with more than the recommended 10% of volume. So far its sucked up a goodly portion of the magnesium I ordered. Good thing I'm made of money :P