Fighting Conch Really Fights

wardworld

Gonna Need A Bigger Tank
Came home the other night to notice my fighting conch directly on top of my clam. I pried him off and then the clam closed up tight. He stayed closed for two days and then today I get home and he's been completely EATEN.
Do fighting conchs attack other mollusks???
 
Could be...there's no way I could tell if he was dead first, but he was fine the day before...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10021324#post10021324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wardworld
Could be...there's no way I could tell if he was dead first, but he was fine the day before...

I'm sorry to hear it.

Clams can go pretty fast.
 
I had a conch eat my clam. My clam was fine I found the conch on the top of the clam needless to say the conch was out that day. It is hard to feed a 2.00 conch a 30.00 clam! Get rid of the conch
 
Carole, it was sold to me as a fighting conch...I'll try and get a picture later...
Paul, you're trying to get me in trouble again :)
 
I've never, personally, had a fighting conch attack anything living. Here's some insight on the fighting conch from ORA:

Florida Fighting Conch - Strombus alatus

The Florida Fighting Conch (pronounced "konk") is one of the most significant new items to be cultured for marine aquariums in years. This is due to the nature of this mollusk. It lives in the coral sand beds and eats algae such as diatoms. This makes the Fighting Conch the best live sand bed stirrer and cleaner on the market today. Fighting Conch are bred exclusively at ORA and their culture techniques were developed here.

Fighting Conch do not fight with anything in the aquarium, so it's a bit of a misleading name. The name derives from the fact that they partake in a ritualistic mating fight between males to determine sexual dominance. They do not disturb any reef tank inhabitants such as corals, clams, or other invertebrates. S. alatus only grow to about 3 inch size, so they will not "out-grow" the tank. ORA sells Fighting Conch at 1-1 1/2 inches. At this size they are "hermit crab proof", so small hermits cannot eat them and steal their shells.

Fighting Conch are known as herbivorous detritivores because they will eat both live and decaying vegetable matter. They will eat all algae growing on the surface of the live sand bed, and other detritus on the bottom. They prefer to stay in the sand and will slightly burrow, although not deep enough to disturb anaerobic areas deep in the sand.

Fighting Conch are more active at night, so they are less visible during the daytime. They can be additionally fed any algae derived food such as algae tabs, Tang diet and even sinking Koi sticks. If they are observed climbing up the glass of aquariums, this usually means they are hungry and should be fed.

ORA recommends that Fighting Conch be kept at a density of no more than 1 or 2 animals per square foot of sand bed. Higher densities may result in the conch out-competing each other for available food and some may starve.
 
Not to derail this thread - whats the other kind of conch in the hobby called because I totallyf orget? the one with the more smooth shell with like orange\green coloration on a white background? Queen conch? doesn't sound right
 
The conch again....

The conch again....

Here's a photo of the offending "conch" (sorry for the blur). I found him on top of yet ANOTHER mollusk (this time a turbo snail). I don't know if he is really "killing" them or not, but I got rid of this joker as I have no idea why it's doing this. Is this a Fighting Conch or something else???
132913conch2.jpg
 
Fighting conchs don't have the ridges/flutes on the edges of the shell. Queens do...but it looks like a whelk. Can you flip it over and show the foot? You are looking for what looks like two spikes=whelk.
 
Unfortunately, I've "disposed" of it already, however it definitely had ridges/flutes on its shell....must have been some type of whelk...
 
Unfortunately for the untrained eye its very difficult to discern - many times whelks take the place of nassarius or conchs that I've read in "help" threads here on RC - that almost looks like what you can find off the coast here in FL too :(

Glad you got rid of it.. best of luck with your tank now that the offending citizen got booted out !
 
I have had 2 fighting conches, one Floridian, one Tongan, in with a crocea clam for a year with no issues whatever.
 
I had one (crown conch) in the main tank for a while. Removed him also because I kept finding him eating the snails. From what I could tell they look as if they close off the foot of the snail cutting off it's oxygen until it opens or dies and looses it's muscle strength & opens. I saved a few where I peeled it off and set it aside, the saved little guy would open for a bit then recoupe & take off. I know I had him for a while before he seemed to get his taste for the mexican snails (or maybe I just started looking to catch him.)
 
Back
Top