Squamosa clamaside and Whelk

Sullyman

Sullyman

Premium Member
My large squamie is dying, will pull it out of my tank tomorrow. I plan on a little autopsy, I did one on another large clam that died on me last year and found a neat shrimp in it.
I've been picking pyramid snails off it for the last 2 weeks, not everday and only 4 or 5 snails at a time. I've never had pyramid snails before, started seeing them a week after adding a new clam, that looks very healthy and has no snails on or about it.
I did find a half inch whelk on the glass next to the sick clam this evening, I have never seen this thing before.
I can't post a pic, don't know how to resize them, but if someone would be willing to resize for me I could email a pic of the whelk.
My question is which pest to blame for my clams demise. In a week's time it crashed.
Water params are fine, 3 other clams in tank look fine, so I think it was a clamaside. My suspects, the pyramid gang, or the whelk.
The whelk is in custody, but so far not talking(clamed up), the pyramids remain at large.
I had this clam for about 8 months. Anyway possible that the whelk has been inside the clam until now? Doesn't seem possible, but after finding the clemensal(spelling?) shrimp in the other large clam?????
Does a fresh water dip kill the pyramid snails? They come out at night, so they must be in the sandbed?????
Any/all help appreciated, don't want this to turn into a cold case!
Bob
 
He was 10 or 11 inches, had him for a little over 8 months.
Did my autopsy, couldn't find the reason he died, but did find a neat little crab living inside him. Took the best pics I could, sent one to mbbuna to post for me like he did of the whelk.
Going to put the crab in my fuge, but I bet he won't live without a clam to live in.
 
the pic is defiantly a whelks snail and they are predators, i've had clams that i gave to others fall victim to them in the past, mostly it's the smaller clams tho, not large ones (clams that is). i've got a derasa in my 180g been in that system for a couple yrs now and i've got a few whelks roaming the rockwork in there. i try to remove all of them i see and banish them to the sump.

kc
 
i think you have a crab and a for sale tank mixed up........how about this????

74350mystery_crab3.jpg


kc
 
Thanks mbbuna for getting the pics up. The crab is smaller than a dime and almost transparent.
Still wondering what killed the clam? My other clams still look fine.
 
sullyman, i dont think the crab killed ur clam. there are a lot of comencial crabs and shrimp that come with our clams,and although i havent been able to(or had a chance) to ID the crab or the snail pic that u sent ,IMO if it was one or the other I would bet on the snail.but like i said i realy havent had a chance to look at the pic ,but i will WED. there could be a lot of reasons for ur clams death, u said in ur first post that u had pyrams. u need to look into that because if u see a few u have a lot more then u see
 
Chris, I agree that the crab didn't hurt the clam. And I don't know that the whelk did either. The pyramid snails could have definately done him in, but I never saw any, other than on his shell. And that was just recently.
I'm looking for answers here, thanks for your help!
Bob
 
This was a wild clam, I don't think a cultured clam would have a live in shrimp or crab, only could happen in the wild, imo.
 
The comensal crab is still alive in my refugium, never thought it would make it, but almost a week! I took a better pic, but still can't resize to post. It doesn't look like it has eyes, strange crab.
 
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