[Redskins]

The small coral is a bubble-tip plate coral. It was doing fine, but it slowly started to look damaged. I found out that some plate corals can get "sunburnt" from the HQ lighting, so I moved him to the floor. He hasn't improved.

I recently purchased what was labeled as a "Giant Clam" to help with my high Nitrate issue. Can you identify the species? The ones I see online are all green!?!

Here are the pictures. Sorry for their large size;




Thanks in advance for any input.

(Poseidon Edit: Resized pictures for easier viewing.)

[dragonladylea]

The clam is a Deresa and if you are having high nitrate problems that is probably what is wrong with your plate coral. How high is high? what are all of your water parameters?

[Ninong]

Turn your clam around so that the incurrent siphon is facing the front of the tank and the orifice beneath it is flush with the substrate. Right now you have it's foot up in the "air."

[Redskins]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Turn your clam around so that the incurrent siphon is facing the front of the tank and the orifice beneath it is flush with the substrate. Right now you have it's foot up in the "air."

He's stuck to a piece of slate. I didn't want to rip it off of him. Are you saying to lay the clam down so that half of it's shell is laying on the substrate? He's got a "sniffer" on one end, is that his top or bottom? I thought they sit on their hinge....Sorry, I'm kind of new to clams.

[Redskins]

Originally Posted by dragonladylea

The clam is a Deresa and if you are having high nitrate problems that is probably what is wrong with your plate coral. How high is high? what are all of your water parameters?

All of my numbers are good, (except my nitrate). Salinity is 1.023, PH is 8.3, Ammonia and Nitrite are 0, I have a slight trace of Phosphate, Calcium is 430-440, Temp is 82-84, Nitrate is 70-80ppm. I am doing crazy water changes. I'll catch up with it,....eventually.

Can that coral come back, or does it look like a goner?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Redskins

He's stuck to a piece of slate. I didn't want to rip it off of him. Are you saying to lay the clam down so that half of it's shell is laying on the substrate? He's got a "sniffer" on one end, is that his top or bottom? Sorry, I'm kind of new to clams.

Never mind. If it's attached to a piece of slate and you have it positioned with the attached part down on the substrate, then you have it correct. I had to look this up because I assumed that all Tridacna clams were the same as far as the location of the foot is concerned but it appears that I may have been wrong.

I found this on Robert Fenner's website:

Tridacna derasa (Ruding 1798), the Derasa Clam. Cocos Keeling, Australia, Fiji, Indonesia and the Philippines. Very low sculpturing on the shell, which has its base near the anterior end rather than posterior (as all other species of Tridacna). Shells can close tightly together (unlike T. gigas). Often yellow/golden streaking in mantles.

The base is what you need to have down. According to Fenner, and I'm sure he's correct, the base is near the anterior (front) end of a Derasa clam rather than the posterior (rear) as in the other species.

If your clam has attached, the part that is attached is the base. What I was talking about when I mentioned the incurrent and excurrent siphons are those two openings in the clam's mantle. One of them pokes up above the mantle and that's the excurrent siphon. The other one is the one that is a wider opening and it is the incurrent siphon. Water goes in the incurrent and out the excurrent. In my Crocea and Maxima clams, the foot was beneath the incurrent siphon at the posterior end of the clam.

[Redskins]

Thanks for looking into that. You guys are great!

[dragonladylea]

Can that coral come back, or does it look like a goner?

With the current Nitrate condition probably not going to come back but anything is possible. When my nitrates were high I only lost a Green Nepthia but that was because it was a new addition. All of my other corals had been exposed to the nitrates over time and while it didnt kill them it still wasnt healthy.

Do you run a Skimmer, sump, fuge? What substrate are you using? How big is the tank and what inhabitants? Also how much are you feeding and how often? I'm hoping I can help you get the nitrates down. I now have a 0-5ppm nitrate level and can hopefully give you a few ideas.