[Rhonda.J]

I have a Maxima clam that is about 2 inches. It use to open up real well. But recently he pulls in part of his mantle like something is iritating it.. He is pulling that part in more and more while it opens the rest of his mantle. I went and got a magnifying glass to see if I could see any of the parasidic snails, All I see are these white spots all over that part of the mantle. It looks like sand stuck to the mantle. I got some of it off and it feels like sand. Do these snails look and feel like sand when they are in the egg stage or when they are babies. I don't see anything moving. I searched the clam all over and found no other trace of anything. All the other clams are still opening great.

[adron420]

Here a couple of picture of the parasitic snails, Tathrella sp., that just recently began to attack my clams. My maxima did exactly what yours did, tucked in a small portion of its mantel, I dont think he was being bothered as much as my squamosa that pulled in its entire outer mantel and looks like it may not make it. The snails range in size from about 1/16"-3/16" from what I saw and during the day they hide underneath the clam, and at night they are visible all around the mantel. They are easily removed with tweezers. Your sand does not sound like them, although I dont doubt that sand getting between the mantel and shell would bother a clam. If it sand try a turkey baster to gentely blow the sand loose. Also watch to make sure no corals are expanding after the lights go out that could irritate the clam.

[Rhonda.J]

But I have scrubbed the shell down with a toothbrush 3 times just in case. I have never seen anything that looked like the snails on the clams shell. These are just specks on the clams mantle just in that one area. and they never leave. I would try picking them off but of course I can't get them off while it is on the mantle because when I get that close the clam closes. I have taken the clam out and looked at him with a magnifying glass and I see nothing but these speacks. There is another small maxima next to it that is opened really good. One day the little gold one did turn himself sideways and I wonder if he layed there trying to open and got sand stuck to his mantle. I don't know. I am just worried that if it is these snails they will soon start going after my other clams.

[petpoor]

Could it have been stung by something or maybe a large bristleworm irritating it at night?
Tom

[golfish]

Rhonda.J,
Small Maxima's like your don't do very well. I have made the mistake of buying them under 3" and have had no luck. IMO, a Maxima will do best if you can buy it attached to a rock. I have also found that in my case they don't do well in the sand, The bristle worms seemed to bother them......

[SueT]

I agree with golfish here. The small maxima's are hard to keep, IME. Also maxima's are a rock dwellwer, not sand. They should be in your rock structure. Derasa's and squamosa's are the only sand dwelling clams. I sure do not know what the problem is with the sand type things but maybe if you tried the clam in the rocks it might help. My crocea's are in the rocks as are my 1 maxima. The one derasa I have is in the sand. The pics of my crocea's on my site are in the sand as I had just purchased them from a lfs that had them under vho's and I was trying to acclimate them to my 400w iwasaki's.

my 120 sps tank:
http://suetruett.homestead.com/home.html
www.marshreef.org/members

[Rhonda.J]

I did try putting them on rocks first but thet kept moving. One of the croceas I have was on a rock ledge when I went to bed one night. The next morning he had pushed himself off the rock and was already digging himself in the sand. He has been very happy there ever since. I have 2 of the small maxima clams. The other one is doing really awesome. DR. Ron says that it is possible to keep the smaller clams as long as you feed the tank Live DTs and cryopaste. He told me that the smaller clams aren't able to eat from the light alone because they are so small. So their diet has to be supplemented with food. As I said the other small one is doing great and has actually grown about 1/2 in 3 months. Now I wondering if maybe these bad snails have gotten inside the clams mantle where I can't see them. The clam is closing up like the one above, only there are no snails that I can see.