squamosa: cleaners won't leave it alone!

[Me No Nemo]

Hi all...thanks for any help with this. My large squamosa has been happy and healthy for about 2 years now, but all of a sudden the cleaner shrimp and blue legs are all over it and it won't open. We did change the flow in the tank about 2 weeks ago and there is stonger flow in that area...could that be the problem? Doesn't really seem to by anything else I can see or is there something else I should look for? Thanks for any help. Marcye

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

i was under the impression that if the scavengers are interested and even eating that the clam is......dying or dead.......?

 

[Me No Nemo]

Picture

Picture

Sorry, not the best pic. Not sure what you can see on here. Marcye

 

[Me No Nemo]

Opens back up when the shrimp leaves...seems responsive to light. Not sure what's going on.

 

[saltwaterfishlover]

how long have you had the clam? it maybe sick and the shrimp is just doing what comes naturally.... eithor remove the shrimp or put a basket over the clam to see how it does (recover or pass)

 

[fishieness]

yeah, take a tupperware container and put it over the clam./ make sure there are holes in it so the clam can get some flow and that the container is clear so it still gets light. leave it there for a little bit. like a few days. then take it off and see if the cleaner still picks at it. it could be dying if the blue leg is doign it too, but i have seen many instances on here where cleaners do it for no reason. but if they are picking at it, its sure not oging to make it heal. try to tupperwear and see how the clam does. if it dies or does better.

 

[Me No Nemo]

Well, I did a one minute freshwater dip last night and lots of tiny white snails came off the clam. They don't look like pyramid snails, they are round, not cone shaped. Since then the cleaners have left it alone and it's open again. My tank is full of these snails...hundreds of them. This happened a couple of months ago as well, although they didn't seem to do any harm that time and disappeared within a few days. Any idea what type of snails these are and how to get rid of them?

 

[tibbs2]

You really need a good macro shot of the snails to have any chance of identification.

 

[Chad Vossen]

the shrimp must have been after the snails or the snails were causing damage and your shrimp was picking the damaged tissue away.