Problems with 10 month old clam

[avery155]

Hello everyone,
So I am having some problems with my 10month old clam. Maxima, about 5 to 6 inches. All was well up until a week ago. It stopped extending it's mantle, it has done this before when my wrasse dumps some sand on it so grab the baster and give it a blast. Still nothing. Now it is open a tad, but mouth looks gaping and center of the mantle is now white. Outer half plus of mantle still is retaining color, clam does not react to me moving hand above it. It does slam shut with reaction to touch still and sometimes clams up on it's own for no apparent reason.

While feeding the fish today I noticed a few white worms by the base of the clam. I tried to suck one up to Id it but no luck, basically immagine a black worm, but white.


If it's not a worm type parasite the only other thing I can think of is I tore it's foot. For 5 months the clam never attached to the rock I had under it. Well having gobies and pistol shrimp they tunnels under clam and clam slid down to a 45. Not wiing to just plop my hands in the tank just to upright a clam, I waited untill I did maintenance. Grabbed clam to pull it up and give it a brushing to remove some bubble algae and low and behold the clam.had finally attached itself. Up came rock with clam. I'm almost 100 percent certain I have torn some of it's foot as it was not as attached as it once was.

Tank 45 jbj, radion, skimmer, ato, carbon gfo, dosing 15ml calc/alk daily,

Tank parameters
1.025 Digi refractometer
.75 ppm
Calc 465
Alk 8.7
Mag 1440
Phosphate 0 on the Hannah low range kit ( just replaced gfo day before)

Have never seen pyramid snails on it at night and checked at night when I first got clam

 

[avery155]

Said worms may not be worms, they seem to live in a white tube and have multiple worm looking heads, the tube that they live in is soft and flesh and seen them collecting detritus with their testicles? Only place I see these mystery critters are by base of the clam.

So what worm type critter lives in a soft tube, with clearish white tenticles. Time to go back to the Id page.

Edit to add
Polychaete - Chaetopterid/Spionid
Can anyone confirm if the shell is soft or hard on this type ? Only difference is the tube is white not dark colored.

 

[Uncle99]

I had a similar experience with my clam about a month ago now. Fell off its perch after a year onto the sand bed. Looked like you describe. Put him back up on the rock. He looked terrible for a month, not opening much, not extending the mantle at all. After a month, each day he seemed to get a bit better and by the end of the following month, back to normal.

Sorry, I can't tell you what caused this problem, but the instance seems quite similar. My guess would be an attack from someone else, I my case, I assume it's the peppermint shrimp, but just a guess.

Hopefully, he will heal on his own like mine.