[Generalee]

I have what I think to be an aptasia living in one of the schutes (if that's what they are) in my maxima clam. What I see are only 9 clear to tanish tentacles sticking out of the schute. What can I do to get rid of it without harming the clam. I hear most people inject the thing with hydrogen peroxide or a strong dose of kalk. I don't want to do it wrong and injur the clam, but I don't want it to spread in my tank either.
Any suggestions?

[Whisper]

If it is in the shell of the clam, I don't think doing the measures you mentioned will harm it. It is even easier because you can pick up the clam and do it outside the tank.

[Generalee]

Ok, so I can dose it without hurting the clam, that is a good thing. Another question would be how long will the clam be ok out of water? I am nervous about taking aquatic things out of water for any amount of time. 30 seconds? 1 minute? 5 minutes?
I figure I can dose the schute or is it a flute full of solution and let it sit for how long? Will it almost instantaneoulsy (sp) kill the apstasia? After it is dead, should I try to scrape out the remanders?
Thanks for all your help.

[zhenya]

You can just take clam out of the tank and give it a good scrub with the toothbrush,rinse it well with some tank water and inspect it.If some remains,use some tweezers or such and remove what's left.It work for me couple of times.Your clam will be fine out of water for good five min.They take them out of water and leave them in the sun to induce spawning at the farms Taking them out for five minutes will not harm your clams.I take mine out every week to inspect,just make sure you place it back in the same spot

[Captain Clam]

I agree with Gene. I have only had one aiptasia on a clam and I just scrubbed it off with a toothbrush. The clams are OK out of water for a short time. I never keep mine out more than a couple of minutes though. I do this periodically and the clams don't seem to mind too much, but in all honesty, I am still very nervous when I clean my clams. I don't like messing with them any more than necessary.

[kevinpo]

I also remove my clams once every couple of months or so for a scrubbing with a toothbrush. It took several tries for me to remove a small aiptasia anemone with tweezers but eventually I got it. Now I have a Copperband and very few aiptasia.

Here's a picture of it out for a scrub

HTH,
Kevin

[zhenya]

Nice growth Kevin
I often wonder if clams get this sort of coralline growth on them in the wild.I remember recieving clam from Barry and shell was sort of gray/green and now it's totally purple in my tank,totaly encrusted with coralline.Now,looking at your clam,I see that it's probably only in our tanks .
I tried to brush it off few times but it want come off

[Generalee]

Ok, i took the clam out and everything went fine. I took the opportunity to clean up my GOB also, had dino algae growing under/around it or something. Everything looks fine now and I will be more open to the idea of taking things out of the water for inspection. Also took the time to fix my doser. Thanks for the replies.

[Barry N.]

When some of my clams come in and sometime find some fo the nasty things on them and use a tooth brush or knife to rid them. Taking the out of the tank will not harm the clam. You your be surprised how long they can live outside of water. At the farms they take them out and place them in the sun for a few hrs and place them back into the water to induce spawning.

Barry

[Palmetto]

I agree with the above posts.

They often come in from the Marshall Islands or from holding tanks at wholesalers with Aips on them. I scrub away before placing them into our holding tanks. I also keep some peppermints in with them, they clean them off pretty quickly also.

I personally would not use Kalk paste on a clam, it WILL burn holes in the mantle if it gets on it.