what is it??

[medic29]

Good afternoon. I've got a couple of clams in my tank. The last one was added close to a year ago and both have been doing well. This morning I was looking at the tank through the side glass and noted something on the backside of one of the clams, down near the sand, directly by its foot. I have no idea what this is, it looks like an old shaving brush. I tool a couple of pics and will try to upload them below.

This may be completely normal, but I have not seen this before. Bot of my clams are sitting on a half shell. This larger one is kind of sitting on the end of the shell and it almost appears like the edge of the shell is up inside the foot. I didn't get any pics of that because I couldn't have my hand in the tank and take pics at the same time.

Some more pics....

I just wanted to make sure everything is okay; what this thing is; and if needed to do something before the clam shows any signs of damage.

Please let me know what you think.

 

[WayneY]

This is normal. Every now and then they do this. I believe it is just old bysal(?) threads/ foot area. I dont know if they "shed" them or what by mine have done this before and are still doing very well.

 

[medic29]

Okay....that is kind of what it looks like, but I just wanted to make sure it was normal.

 

[medic29]

This is the response I got from Clams Direct:


hi medic29 welcome to ClamsDirect forums

what you are seeing is the clams byssal threads. the byssal gland secretes these and they hold the clam in place. clams can release them and regrow them. its not anything to worry about.