Nassarius Snails in my Crocea!

[ReefRockerLive]

For some reason now for 3 nights in a row. I have seen at least 10 small nassarius snails going inside my crocea clam. For two nights after seeing this happening I carefully removed the snails and placed them in my fuge. At first I thought the clam was dying and that was why the snails were inside it, but after the first night of removing all from the clam, the clam lived and it's mantle is fully extended.

What confuses me is why these snails would go inside the clam? I understand they scavenge for food and all, but unless the clam was on it's way out, I think there is no reason for them being inside the clam.

This is the third night and just a few minutes ago I saw 4 nassarius snails go inside the clam...again! Is this unusual behavior for the snails? The crocea clam created a slime coat over the shell which led me to first think it was going to die, but since I removed them the first and second time and the clam living, I don't know what other reason there is for this kind of behavior.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

FWIW, I have 5 other croceas and a squamosa and they don't bother them.

Thanks

 

[ezcompany]

very unusual. the crocea must be weak and ready for death, or you might have whelks not nassarius. can you get pics?

 

[ReefRockerLive]

If these snails were whelks wouldn't try also be attacking my other clams or do they go one by one? I will try to get some pics up later today.

 

[a4twenty]

take a look at this

 

[Sk8r]

dog whelks [brown] are often sold as nassarius [usually white to beige.]

I suspect nassarius are in the whelk family, which is why ID gets confused, but if you buy only white ones you're safer.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

What I have is definitely not a whelk it's a nassarius. I'll get those pics up soon.

 

[a4twenty]

well if you are sure they aren't whelks then they are nassarius going after the dieing tissue, so probably not the cause but still undesirable.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

Well look what I found:

I found two of these guys, they have the "tattooed" appearance on their snout which makes me think this is a whelk. If I have 2 of these, then what's the likeness that I have more?

BTW, I left the clam alone for the night with the nassarius in it, but not the whelks since they were not in sight and right now the clam isn't going to make it.

 

[ezcompany]

looks like a nassarius, u sure about the tatoos? either way i would isolate the clam and not give up on it yet!

 

[ReefRockerLive]

I took a look at the clam is morning and all that is left is an empty shell. I tried to take a picture of the snout that looked like it was tattooed to me, but the picture came out way too blurry. At the moment, these snails are in my sump away from any clams.

 

[ROB2005]

It looks like the clam was simply on its way to clam heaven, and the nassarius snails were just simply responding to the smell of the dying flesh and begin to initiate the clean up job.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

That makes sense to me. It's unfortunate to have to have lost such a great looking clam.

Thanks to all for the input.

 

[slitwin]

I had a similar issue where I saw one of my nassarius snails attached to the bottom of my derasa. I didn't remove it because I didn't know what he was doing. The next day, the clams mantle was inverted and he died two days later. Damn snails!!

 

[ROB2005]

Slit, you cant blame the snails. They are only doing what they know how to do. They are carrion eaters, so if the smell is right, they will come running to dine on the manna from heaven.

 

[pagojoe]

Well, it's still up for debate whether you can blame the snails. This snail is a Nassarius, either Nassarius arcularius or Nassarius coronatus (the two species seem to intergrade, or else there is confusion about which is which, or maybe there are several species in the N. arcularius/N. coronatus complex). Time after time people see these snails eating living tridacnids, and always attribute this to the clam being on its way out already. The tricky part is that there are several dozen species of Nassarius that pop up in the aquarium world, all equipped with great little sniffers, and the only ones that keep eating the live clams are the two species I mentioned above. Coincidence? Maybe. I've known of situations where these Nassarius appeared to be attacking juvenile Tridacna clams, and once they were removed from the tank, the clams LIVED. Your clam might have been sick or weakened, but these big snails seem to ensure that they don't recover, if they are.

http://www.gastropods.com/9/Shell_1159.html
http://www.gastropods.com/8/Shell_1158.html

Cheers,



Don