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| Hi Eric I've had 9 clams died on me in the last 6 months.I've checked water parms after each death and they were normal.They were normal looking ,fully extended no pyramid snails or pinched mantle disease ,growing, happy as a clam and boom wake up in the morning just to see a dead clam turned into a clear jelly. After reading a few articles on palytoxin I was asking myself since I have various species of palys in my tank,if it would be possible the palys were the cause ? Thanks
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obviously I'm not Eric,
but i would say knowing palytoxin, that it has to be release and absorb/ingested to work, so unless something is constantly irritating the palythoa, and its secreting PT nearby and the clams are ingesting it, then its a long shot. I will also mention that a number of inverts are insensitive to the toxin, don't know about clams specifically,
but if it were me, I'd be look elsewhere for the reasons the clams are passsing.
Frank
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"We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities disguised as insolvable problems."- John Gardner
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I think it probably could be ingested or absorbed by clams if they were reproducing, highly stressed, or falling apart and dying. I totally agree with Frank and would have answered the same. It's a very long shot, the compound has to be released and the organism has to have not only an uptake means, but it has to be able to produce an effect. Some toxins are general and some are highly specific and palytoxin is one complicated molecule!
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Eric Borneman
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Also, there's really no way to look at a clam (or most other inverts for that matter) and tell that they're healthy. Sometimes there are outward signs of poor health, but not always. As a result, it's not unusual for a "healthy" clam to die overnight. However, your description of clear jelly makes me suspect you may have the worm Oenone fulgida on your hands. It's a predator of mollusks and leaves its victims covered in slime. Are you finding any dead snails covered in slime too?
Mike G.
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana.
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Eric Borneman (11/25/2007)
I think it probably could be ingested or absorbed by clams if they were reproducing, highly stressed, or falling apart and dying. I totally agree with Frank and would have answered the same. It's a very long shot, the compound has to be released and the organism has to have not only an uptake means, but it has to be able to produce an effect. Some toxins are general and some are highly specific and palytoxin is one complicated molecule!I recall losing a paly colony during that death time frame.So it could be the cause, I'm so confused ! I've noticed that I have a paly colony very close to a BTA which two clowns live in and swim close to them at the point that I can see the palys retract. Is it possible that the death of the clams could be cause by supplements such as amino acids,potassium iodide fluoride and bacterial colonies to help reduce No3 and po4 ?
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greenbean36191 (11/25/2007)
Also, there's really no way to look at a clam (or most other inverts for that matter) and tell that they're healthy. Sometimes there are outward signs of poor health, but not always. As a result, it's not unusual for a "healthy" clam to die overnight. However, your description of clear jelly makes me suspect you may have the worm Oenone fulgida on your hands. It's a predator of mollusks and leaves its victims covered in slime. Are you finding any dead snails covered in slime too?That's interesting, I did see a large snail covered in clear mucus one morning and after reading about this creature it could just be that .I'll have to investigate at night and try to find this creature.
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There are so many potential causes of clam death, and Mike mentions one - but at the same time, snails die all the time, too, and the natural decomposition would cause an appearance of being covered in slime. As for the supplements, I have no idea what's in them, the dosage, or their effects on anything in the tank (I suspect neither do the manufacturers, though).
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I would think there is a greater probability of a parasitic flatworm of some sort, they are nocturnal and highly mobile.
190 gallon reef, 24 gallon aquapod, 15 gallon rimless nano in the works
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| only thing i would add is general tank stability, how long has the tank been setup, what is your lighting and "normal" parameters is less useful than getting specifics. what size tank, what is your pH, alk, ca, Mg, Temp, specific grav. , Nitrate, nitrites, ammonia, the tank may not be stable enough if too young (some would argue <1 year old) how big and what type of clam...if <2 inches, often they need to be fed and may not get all their nutrition from the light any previous medications used in the tank (copper, etc) that might be toxic have you checked how much you pH/oxygen changes at nightime with lights off As a general rule, i would recommend only adding supplements that you know are helpful (and i woulndt go by the LFS person or the label but studies done showing why it is needed/helpful) and that you are testing... you could be overdosing iodine which is toxic to inverts hopefully we can figure out the issue and help you keep a clam 
Peace...
Dan
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forestal (11/26/2007)
only thing i would add is general tank stability, how long has the tank been setup, what is your lighting and "normal" parameters is less useful than getting specifics. what size tank, what is your pH, alk, ca, Mg, Temp, specific grav. , Nitrate, nitrites, ammonia, the tank may not be stable enough if too young (some would argue <1 year old) how big and what type of clam...if <2 inches, often they need to be fed and may not get all their nutrition from the light any previous medications used in the tank (copper, etc) that might be toxic have you checked how much you pH/oxygen changes at nightime with lights off As a general rule, i would recommend only adding supplements that you know are helpful (and i woulndt go by the LFS person or the label but studies done showing why it is needed/helpful) and that you are testing... you could be overdosing iodine which is toxic to inverts hopefully we can figure out the issue and help you keep a clam My tank has been setup for a year, all my water parms have been checked every time I lost a clam and they were always ok.I never dosed medication but I'm useing bacterial supplements and bac food since the beginning so my nitrates and phosporus are undectable and Salifert and DD Merck .I've contacted the companiy who makes the supplements and explained to them if their products could of caused death to my clams .They answered no if not overdosed, which they weren't.My pH at night drops to 7.7 - 7.8 in the day I'll get up to 8,4-5 all my other parms are on target.BTW out of the 9 clams that died 6 were 2" the others were 4 and 5 ",I underatand that clams under 3" are iffy...My lighting consist of 8 T5's over an 18" water column which the clams are sitting about 10 " below the bulbs.My tank is 48x24x24.I have a 600MCE Deltec skimmer and I dose kalkwasser via a Nelson reactor. Last night I noticed a 6 " worm can't say exactly which species though but I took it out.I'll be checking for other worms at night,it could just be them. Thanks
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