Need ID of what's on my clam (Pics)

Leandrae

New member
Looking in my tank tonight, I noticed this weird thing on my clam. I took pictures on 2 different cameras hoping to get a good picture. The extremely thin 'arms' are black banded. The thing I drew the black arrow to on the first picture seems almst probe like, looks like purposeful movement when it comes out and then retracts in somewhere.

weirdclamthing2fz8.jpg

weirdclamthing3gg8.jpg

weirdclamthing4gd9.jpg

weirdclamthing5ng0.jpg

weirdclamthing6wx3.jpg


What is this freaky thing? Will it hurt the clam?

Thank you for the help in advance =)
-Janel

PS: Sorry about the dirty glass...didn't want to take time to clean the glass first, thought it might disturb whatever it is and it would disappear. Posting this in the Clam forum and Reef Discussion forum.
 
that is a very oddd little critter... i woudl suggest trying to get it out/off with no ID it could be dangerous. try to get it in bucket.
 
i agree, maybe put it in the sump or a QT until you can get an id.


are the white parts of the mantle just near the creature or is the whole mantle turning white?

here is a link to thread that talks about the lighting requirements of clams ( including your light loving crocea ), there may be some useful info in there for you.
 
its fine, its called a spaghetti worm. they have a little hole where they all come out of and just move around. but when they get scared they retreat to the hole. just put ur hand in the tank and take them out, they feel like jelly.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10431758#post10431758 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by a4twenty
i agree, maybe put it in the sump or a QT until you can get an id.


are the white parts of the mantle just near the creature or is the whole mantle turning white?

here is a link to thread that talks about the lighting requirements of clams ( including your light loving crocea ), there may be some useful info in there for you.

Thank you for the link on lighting. If I'm reading that correctly, I should be ok with my lighting on it. It's in my 65 gallon tank with a 150 watt 10k HQI MH and 2x65 watt actinic PC. This particular clam is sitting at the bottom of the tank though, so perhaps it's too far down. I have another clam that is on the rock about 5 inches from the top of the water and it's color is very intense with no white at all. The clam in the picture is around 18" below the water level with the lighting another 5" or so above that.

I've thought about moving this one higher up on the rocks, but it has buried it's foot down in the sand and has attached to the glass. I have heard that you can use a razor blade to cleanly cut the bissal (spelling?) strands, but I have no idea how I'll even get to it because of the sand. (Wouldn't moving the sand around cause a bit of a sandstorm that would irritate the clam even more?)

And thank you to everyone with help on the worm =)

-Janel
 
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