What would eat my clam?

[fishytoo123]

Something last night consumed one of my small clams. I do have a large deer cowrie and a blue starfish. Also it was near ( a few inches) a elegance coral. Clam was new to the tank but seemed to be doing well last night.

 

[dragon_slayer]

predator snails are the likely suspect. with lights out your elegance is going to retract and while they do have a powerful sting, it's not likely to harm a clam even with direct contact with the mantel, it's just a nuisance to them being touched.

kc

 

[fishytoo123]

I have a large clam and there hasn't been a problem. I just introduced a few dozen Nerite snails. Could that be it?

 

[dragon_slayer]

I'd just be guessing but I'd say a whelks snail is in the midst of your rockwork, small calms are easy pray to them.

kc

 

[Krazy]

Do you happen to have a conch snail ?

I dunno what kind of conch I had, but I caught it in the act of chowing down my 1'st crocea....

Conch is gone, I now have clams with success...

 

[fishytoo123]

You maybe right. Now I have to find it. It must of came in with some corals that I ordered.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Im guessing the clam died and everything ate it. Dont necessarily look for a predator, but instead a general cuase of death. If a clam starts to die, all the clean up crew gets an all you can eat smorgasboard. Too often people blame the clean up crew for just doing their job.

 

[fishytoo123]

Well I just put in a small fighting conch. I always had a large conch and never had any problems. Could it be that the new clams are only over a 1" that it finds it a easier prey. Is it possible the large conch would behave that way too. I am assuming if the clams were 3" that this would not of happened?

 

[fishytoo123]

That clam was the healthiest one out of the 3 that I ordered. I placed the other 2 off the sand bed on to some rocks above. That should keep them safe.

 

[dragon_slayer]

predatory snails live in/on the rockwork, they won't be safe there if that is what it was.

kc

 

[a4twenty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9717769#post9717769 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda
Im guessing the clam died and everything ate it. Dont necessarily look for a predator, but instead a general cuase of death. If a clam starts to die, all the clean up crew gets an all you can eat smorgasboard. Too often people blame the clean up crew for just doing their job.

i agree

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9717842#post9717842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishytoo123
That clam was the healthiest one out of the 3 that I ordered. I placed the other 2 off the sand bed on to some rocks above. That should keep them safe.

it's impossible to tell the health of a clam from it's appearance, i can't count the number of times someone has posted " he was perfectly healthy yesterday but the shells empty now "

 

[fishytoo123]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9717869#post9717869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dragon_slayer
predatory snails live in/on the rockwork, they won't be safe there if that is what it was.

kc

Yeah if it was a snail, but if it was a conch they are safe. I guess it is a wait and see thing.