Margarita snail in my clam???

[warriorss08]

I got some new liverock for my 225 tank and was moving my clam around. I took him out and noticed that he had a margarita snail shell in the bottom of him. It was sticking out a little bit from his underside and his flesh was all curled up towards the top, but the mantle looked normal from the top except for a little color loss. I pried the shell out and since then he looks a lot healthier and his color is coming back. I talked to my fish monger and he said that i did the right thing by pulling the shell out of my clam....why does this happen??? is it serious???and is it the specific snail that does this or do others that are "reef compatable"?

 

[skinz78]

was the snail shell inside the clam by the gills or was it attached in the very bottom in the byssal opening?

when you say pryed it out, what do you mean?

was the snail attached to the clam? or did you pry the clam open and pull the snail out?

If the snail was attached was it attached by threads and did you pry them free?

If so you may have done alot of damage to your clam.

My guess is that the clam attached its byssal threads to an empty snail shell in the rocks or sand and when you moved the clam it sucked the shell into the bottom of its byssal opening. If this is the case this is normal.

If it was inside by the gills the snail may have fallen into the clam long ago and died. Never ever pry on a clam. This stresses the clam and it probably will die. Instead if the snail is in by the gills simply place the clam upside down with plenty of space under the inhalent siphon so the clam can blow the snail out itself. This method shouldn't take long to get results.

How long ago did you remove the snail shell?

Can you post pic's of the clam?

 

[warriorss08]

the shell was coming out of the bottom of the clam. if you lift your clam up and look at the bottom, the shell was attached to the clam flesh and it was curled up. so i pulled it off. now the clam has filled the bottom of it's shell again. So, i didn't really have to pry it open, because it was in the bottom. I removed it about 2 weeks ago. now the clam is looking a lot healthier

 

[skinz78]

Your clam had attached its byssal threads to the snail shell. The byssal threads are what clams use to attach themselves to the rockwork. If you pull on them you can pull the byssal gland out of the clam causeing death. It sounds like your clam might be ok.

The clam would have been fine if you would have left the snail shell attached. I am wondering if you added lr did you move the clam higher up on the new rocks? If you moved your clam up higher on the rocks and now it looks healthier it was probably wanting more light. What kind of lighting do you have?

But next time you want to remove anything from your clams byssal threads don't ever pull it out. Take a sharp knife and cut the threads as far away from the clam as possible. The clam won't feel this. The threads are like our hair and fingernails are to us.