Death of a Clam?

S

snarkes

New member
Alright. So i've had a baby Maxima clam in my tank for about a week and a half now. Everything seemed great, he was always open and it didnt appear that anything was bothering him. The only problem I had was that I couldnt get him to attach to a rock... so he stayed in the sand where he was happy. Well, I came home this afternoon and the only thing I saw left was his empty shell... I mean that sucker was cleaned out. Now, I dont know what could have happened to him in such a short span of time. The LFS seems to think that it was the result of bristleworms coming through the foot. I thought maybe it was the queen conch I have? but like I said, nothing had been bothering it before, not the crabs, fish or the conch. My parameters are still good:

Nitrites and Amonia = 0
Nitrates = trace
Calcium =~420
Salinity = 1.025
Temp = 79

Any ideas?
 
Haha... no they wouldnt be leaving their shell. I have posted in the clams forum as well, but since its such a small forum I thought I'd appeal to one of the more experienced reefers here.
 
Since you brought up bristles with your clam. My LFS store told me to get the bristle worms out of my tank and to put them in the fuge. Based on reading here and at Melev's I told him he was wrong and they won't eat anything. I've seen one crawl over my zoanthids at night but it didn't stop to eat (if it did it could have eaten a nudibranch since I have a plethora of those).

I also have a clam in the substrate since it always jumps off the rock anyway I figure I'll just leave it on the sand.

What's the general opinion of the board? Bristleworms good or bad? Do they normally eat clams / other livestock?

Sorry for the hijack
 
In general bristle worms are not a bad thing, but they tend to have a bad rep due to a few predatory variaties. Ron Shimek gives a few simple rules for determining if you have one of the bad ones. Obviously, if you actually see it munching on a coral or something, take it out. If it appears to be bold (is out in the open during the day, doesn't spook easily) it's most likely a problem and should be CAREFULLY removed. The vast majority (I hesitate to say "all") of the shy ones are harmless.
 
My conch leaves my clam alone completely, doesn't even notice it when he's crawling by. (queen conch btw).

UnderCoverDork is on a good point, how small was the clam and where you feeding it? small clams do not have sufficient mantle tissue to recivie enough from nutrition from lighting. They HAVE to be fed or risk dying at such a young tender age. Once dead, all sorts of critters from britstlworms to hermtis are going to jump on the chance for a meal. I've seen whole fish dead in my tank, dissapear before my eyes in under an hour. Just from the "critters".
 
I have lost two clams to nothing more than their own disatisfaction with being in my tank. You can do everything right in this hobby and still have bad results. It could have been the worms, but chances are, you will never know. I sincerely doubt any other critters should become prime suspects, but then again blennies and cow fish could have caused the problem. The cow fish may have nipped at it while you weren't looking. The blennies might have perched on it.

Every time I have had a lcam die, the shell is cleaned out on the inside. I found my last clam I lost floating in the water column, with some snagged on an sps coral, and still more snagged on my vortec pump. When the clam dies, it leaves the shell. It has not necessarily been consumed out of the shell.

Anyways, keep your chin up. The shells make for good decorations and war stories. Corals can attach to them. You can always buy another clam.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9532269#post9532269 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cristhiam
how about crabs, I had one that kept trying to still a small max I have.
Click to expand...

crabs are just plain opportunistic, if it looks tasty, they won't hesitate to try it out. I've been fortunate that all my crabs behave themselves.

fwiw people, if you want to attempt a clam, and you are not the most experienced reefer, try to get at least a 3" specimen, bigger would help even more. The larger clams rely more heavily on light than plankton for their food. As long as your lighting is enough and placement is proper, they should do fine. But getting a smaller baby clam is a risk even for experience hobbyist. They just fair alot poorer than older specimens. I strongly urge anyone interested in clams to do proper research into the type of clams available, care requirments, placement requirments, and do plenty of research on what you should be looking for when purchasing a clam to begin with.
 
Wow... couldnt get to this until now. But My stocking list is as follows:

~10 hermits (red and blue legs)
~10 snails (Astreas and Nassarius)
Flame Angel
False Perc
Falco Hawk
Neon Pseudo
Hi-Fin Goby
Sea Hare

Also, the clam was small, about 2 inches, but I had been feeding DT's every other day.
 
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