Lost clam to brittlestar

[ernordstrom]

I am not sure if this is a common occurance but my beautiful clam pictured below was lost today to a brittle star. I just picked him up last week and when I came home from work I found his shell in the arms of the brittlestar and that is all that was left....just a shell...I am sad to lose this baby.

The brittlestar would toch him alot during the day with his arms but I guess he decided to go ahead and eat him today. The clam showed no signs of poor health that I could see so I am not sure what led to his demise...maybe I should check for pyramid shells. Has anyone experienced this happening before. Thanks for any replies.

 

[ernordstrom]

Okay...I did some research on my own. I have these in my aquarium....please tell me they are not pyramid snails cause I just sucked about 20 out of my tank. Is my 10 inch Squamosa in jeopardy?

 

[phil519]

sorry for the clam loss - looked like a nice maxima (i think).

the snails your showing appear to be pyramids - but they also look like the rissoids in my tank. Have you had them all this time with your 10" squammy? If so it's possible (though unlikely) to be pyrams. At that size it could probably tolerate a few pyrams.

The tip of the "whorl" of the shell is one "marker". If it's one continuous whorl - it's a rissoid. But if the tip is different - then it's likely to be a pyram. There's a couple threads in this forum about identifying them. The lack of the "lid" to close up is also a "marker" of a pyram. Of course it's presence on a clam's foot or under the mantel is a definite flag - so where you find them needs to be taken into the context.

Most pyrams hitch in as an egg mass on a clam shell. Did you look at the maxima that you introduced last week? look at the foot for egg mass or snails?

Anyways - it's unusual in my opinion for a star to kill a clam. My serpent puts it's arms near the clam - but that's because foot pellets sometimes float by it. from the pic your brittle star looks to be black? or is it Green?

 

[Crustman]

Sorry you lost him.