I do see your point and also being an etailer I thought about this but hiding what I know is more of a concern to us. Beleive me, we have customers that have been buying from us for over 8 years and continue to do so. We have a VERY small amount of people that have problems with the clams. That is true with every product that is sold. One person that ownes a Ford truck will always buy one but then you will have a few that would not own one because they had nothing but problems with it. A poor example but true.

These diseases are not only known to Tridacnids but live within corals, fish and other invert. The point that we are trying to make is, that ALL livestock, not just tridacnids should be quarantined. As far as blaming the LFS or etailer, that has been done in the past prior to this report, so nothing has change.

One thing that we have documented over the years is that less than 9% of our clams that go out, we receive a report of PM. Now with that being said, let say we ship out 20 orders ( 44 clams ) and we receive a report from 3 people saying that there clam now has PM and the rest show no sign of it. Keep in mind that the 44 clams came from the same shipment and same holding tank. We have spoken to those people in the hopes to find a common denominator such as using the same brand of salt or something else but were not found. Signs of PM is very isolated but we always here about this from a few but the majority never say how well there clams are doing. It's to easy to bitch about something then to praise about somethng.

Most all the clam farms now have to receive a health certificate from the US Department of Agriculture prior to exporting into the US. I think we will find that this will be expanded to other salt water animals as well in the future.

You would be surprised on what fish and some corals bring in as far as a dormant disease but there has not been any extensive research done as far as I know and the funds are just not available.

I could go on and on what we have learned but it would take me a long time to convey what we have learned in the past 5+ years.

In closing, I would say this.

Know who you are buying from. Personal reference is always good.
Quarantine all livestock prior to placing in display tank.
Do some research to make sure your tank mates are suitable for keeping with Tridacnids.
Check water chemistry and quality weekly. Not just the norm, pH, salinity, CA and alk.
Stay away from a lot of these buffers; they can do more harm than good IMHO.
Water changes regularly.
Ground probe in tank or sump.

Remember you have a large investment in your system. Bottom line, do some research FIRST! I get so angry when I see post on some of these forum, " I bought this clam, now how do I take care of it"?

There are more people that are able to keep clams then the ones that can't.

I will say this, approx. 90 of the clams that were sent to the lab were from the same region not neccessary the same supplier and were all wild except a few dereasa which not trace of the parasite was found and they were farmed and from another region. (country)

Hey Barry, you mentioned you are seeing that nitrates are a trigger, have you seen anything with phosphates contributing too?

Havent done those test yet but also higher temp could also be a trigger.