What kills clam eating snails?

ReefRockerLive

ReefRockerLive

GHL Mitras LX7 Club
I use to have 5 clams in my 55g tank, until I added a new clam to the tank. That clam must have been carrying clam eating snails because that one eventually died and then the others too began to die on me.
Everytime they showed signs of gaping, I checked the clam and check out the foot and everything seemed normal.
I wasn't able to determine what exactly killed my precious clams until they all died one by one.
One week later as I was looking at my tank when the lighting was off, I noticed tiny snails that had spiral figures on them. Every week I noticed more and more appearing, that led me to knowing that they were the ones responsible for the death of my clams. I've tried a six line wrasse and he didn't so anything about it.

My only option was to every night, when my lighting was turned off, to check on my tank and take out as many as I could find which turned out to be at least 4 a night.

I've been doing the process ever since today. Now, it's time for me to setup my 75g reef with some live rock. I would like to add some of my live rock to my new 75g, but plain on eventually having clams in my tank. Knowing that I have the clam eating snails, I was planning on boiling each and every rock.

I decided to give my fellow reefer friend a call and ask of his opinion on my dillema. He told me that there is some type of liquid or tablet that kills all snails as well as inverts.

Does anyone know what exactly I'm looking for or what is does?

Can anyone help me out with this problem of mine?

I will post pictures of what they look like later tonight.

Thanks,
Vinny
 
i have no ecperiences with clams but i believe small whelks are eating them, i dont know how to get rid of them except to pluck them off when ever u see some
 
Nope....sorry that's incorrect, maneatingguppy

What you describe is a textbook case of pyramid snails, and your description is spot on. Manual removal is the best and usually only reliable option. You may rid the tank of them by removing ALL mollusks from the tank for several weeks (they prey on other animals than clams....astrea snails for example) To rid the clams of them, remove all clams every night, several hours after lights out, and check every square inch with a magnifying glass if necessary. Be sure to check around the byssal opening and mantle, and remove any egg masses.

Do the above every night until you haven't found any for a week. THen check weekly for a month or two. You should be pretty clean then.
 
Do these pyramidellid also eat algae? I notice these snails that are 1/4 the size of a grain of rice come up out of the gravel after lights out. They travel all the way across the glass leaving little snail trails behind them. I have found some on my turbo snails and I have noticed a couple on the shell of my clam. Are they searching for fresh snail meat? They do not appear to go near the mantle of the clam. They hang out on the scalloped edges about half way down the shell. It there an easy way to trap them? There's too many to manually remove. If I could get them all to gather in one area it sure would make it easier to get them out. What sort of foods are they attracted to?
 
We would need to see a pic. THere is a species of algae easters that looks similar, I believe. The pyramid snails suck the lymphatic (sp?) fluid from mollusks, and will not survive if no mollusks are present for a while.
 
There are quite a few "reef safe" wrasse that will eat pyramid snail. I had a lightning wrasse that totally eradicated the problem when I had infected clams.
 
IME the wrasse actively hunt the snails and will eat them directly off the clams. It helps to lift the clams off the sand to make access easier for the wrasse.
 
Oh, no. I am supposed to get my first clam tonight. I have seen these pyramid snails on the undersides of my astraea shells, but thought they were tiny cerith snails. My ceriths actively lay eggs...

Anyway, I can remove my astraea snails from the tank. How long will it take the pyramid snails to die off if they have no host?

Melissa
 
I read in Dr. Ron's forum that pyram's are specific in their prey. Meaning that the same snails that prey on astreas won't prey on clams and vice-versa.

There are also small ceriths that resemble pyrams. I have hundreds of them all over the place at night. But, none on my clams.
 
what do these snails look like? i found tiny cream colored snails all over my crocea's shell, near where tissue starts. i notice this clam has not been itself for past few weeks. where do these snails come from? i had no problems w/ this clam for 2 years.:mad:
 
yeah that's it. thanks. i officially have them on my 1.5 yr old beautiful 4.5" crocea. other 3" 1 has none but is next to it. i took the infected 1 out the water for a minute and picked all off, maybe 10-15 around flesh on shell. he looked worse last week, hardly opening, but now he's opened a bit more, but not much. he's also duller in color. what can i do besides pick them off? should i clean him good and put him up in rock work a bit, off sand. do i need to worry about these snails harming anything else, and is there anything i cand do to get rid of them? this sucks!!
 
Has anyone tried interceptor to kill these snails (interceptor is used to kill the "red bugs" on SPS). Supposed they kill the red bugs, along with any crabs, shrimp, etc you have in your tank...will it possibly kill the snails as well?

Just a thought...
 
i bought a 6line wrasse on saturday, also built a pod nest in corner of tank out of abbandoned snail shells and rubble. within a day of building it, i noticed ALOT of pyramid snails gathering there. everyday i remove pile and remove snails. clam has not had any on him but he's not opening, maybe 30%. don't know what to do.
 
I had a clam to die i did not see any of these little pests but it did die and i have no idea why. But i also have a Thorny oyster so if it was these snails shouldnt the oyster be dead too? i have him much longer than the dead clam.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
New Crocea Clams - Some opening some not?
Replies
3
Views
558
hilde123
H
F
Can a large nassarius snail kill a small fish?
2
Replies
21
Views
2K
griss
griss
C
Two Red Legged Hermit Crabs One Shell
Replies
3
Views
393
griss
griss
P
5G ADA Pico Reef with Cherub Angel
Replies
3
Views
294
Dustin07
D
C.Eymann
Close call today with a baby cone snail
Replies
4
Views
276
C.Eymann
C.Eymann
Back
Top