Blame it on the anemone?

[peterlin98]

Well, my beautiful, large deresa bite the dust today. It was gaping yesterday. I took it out of water and there was no snail on it.

About a week or so ago - I noticed deresa retracted part of its mantle that is close to this ever growing sebae anemone. I placed a rock between them, hoping to protect deresa.

I know clams are okay from brushing up next to coral - but has anyone experienced loss of clams to anemone? I wonder if the two maroon clown fish have anything to do with this. These two fish are very territorial. They push off any corals I set close to the sebae anemone. I have had both deresa and sebae anemone for quite a while - late last year. They are fine - close to each other ..it's just that anemone is really growing.

Anther possibilities is that I cleaned the tank on Saturday. I stirred up sand and rearrange a few ponpei clams. I am not sure what triggered it, but clams began to spawn. With 35+ clams, my 150 gallon tank got very cloudy. Skimmer was working overtime. I had to empty skimmer's collection cup couple times.

Water is clear next day (Sunday) and all clams appeared well, except deresa was gaping big time. The condition seemed worth yesterday and it died today.

 

[onegreenray]

sorry for your loss. no i have never heard of an anemone killing a clam.

 

[ADS]

Sorry to hear that-Do you think you maybe hit a pocket of H2S(hydrogen sulfide) in your sand that stressed and triggered the spawn. Adam

 

[peterlin98]

Adam,
Yes - I was thinking about that stirrng up sand could cause stress to clams and they respond by spawning. I did not clean the entire tank on the same day. First day I cleaned the front glass (moved the sand back) - scrap off algae, it looks like LPS corals (i.e. open brain, etc) and all seem to respond well. So the next day, I did the back side of the tank.

I seriously doubt anemone will pack a powersting - that last a week to weaken the deresa clam (7 inch). However, if hydrogen sulfide is the cause, I wonder why smaller clam (2 inch maxima) survived this ordeal..but not a larger clam?

Anyway, I'm looking to replace my deresa clam. Hoping to get one with blue rim - about 6 inch.

 

[ADS]

That's a good question. My theory with larger clams(8+) is that
they are like the elderly. They become more an more weakened by minor stresses. A spawning event may have exhausted the clam. Clams spawn under stress as a 'last ditch' effort to survive.
Do you know which clam began spawning first? It may have been this one and then the others followed by chemical stimulation.
It may not be the sperm and eggs released that killed it but the event itself.
Who knows... either way it's terrible to lose a prized clam. My sympathy. Adam