clam attacked

[fl_izzy]

i have a crocea clam about 3" and just last night, someone in the tank too a chunk out of it from underneath. he sits at a Y and it was visible plus i have seen the small piece at the bottom. i have clowns, sleeper and firefish gobies, magnificent foxface, dragonett plus the one i believe did it, a lawnmower blenny. any ideas? clam is very recessed inside the shell. will it die? thanks for any input

 

[skinz78]

can you take a pic of the clam? It is hard to tell without pic's. It may be the lawnmower blennie, what inverts do you have? In the mean time move the clam to the sand, if it is attached to the rockwork with its byssal threads take a sharp knife and cut them as far away from the clam as possible. Take a clear plastic bottle preferrably 2 litre. Cut it in half, fill it with 1/4" holes for water circulation. Place the clam in an open spot in the sand. Then put the bottle over the clam to shield it from your critters. If the clam opens up and stays open you then know something is nipping at your clam.

 

[fl_izzy]

best i could do right now with my outdated camera. i have a skunk shrimp, 2 sexy shrimp, 2 emerald crab, assorted snails, about 15 blue legged hermitts. the skunk shrimp use to bother it a bit until i moved the clam to the right of the tank. i have seen him at night on the right but not on the clam. there was a small chunk from the clam at the bottom of the tank that now i cant find. clam is recessed from both top and bottom. concern if i put him in the sand is that i am running t5ho's which are enough but not sure at sandbed.

 

[skinz78]

I suspect the cleaner shrimp and the blennie, do the bottle trick and see what happens.

can you post all of your water params?

The chunk the clam left behind is its byssal threads. They do that from time to time and aren't harmed by doing so.

 

[fl_izzy]

temp 78
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
alk 12
ph 8.0
cal 540
phospate .5
i do have a hair algae problem and the suspect might be old vho actinics, posted questions on that but not many replies

 

[schigara]

My emerald crabs killed my 5 in Maxima a few days ago. I noticed way to late why my Maxima started retracting in it's shell. The night before the clam died, I looked in the tank with a flashlight to see the Emerald crab fiesting on the clam.

 

[fl_izzy]

well here is an update. i did put the clam in the sand but New Years events prevented me from covering it with some container. i got home this morning and all that is left is the shell. as soon as i can catch the 2 emerald crabs they are gone. gone soon is the lawnmower blenny, all he does is grab some algae once in a blue moon and spits most of it out anyways. plus he likes to park on top of my zoas and that is a big no no.

 

[skinz78]

sorry to hear that. better luck next time