worm eating clam?

[oneradtek202]

i look in my tank every night to check things out and tonight i found a very outstretched, kinda larger(more length than width) worm from my LR onto my clam. looks like a regular night crawler looking one. im wondering if it was tryign to eat my clam?

ive heard worms will eat things

 

[a4twenty]

some will but most will only go after a dieing clam, could you try to get a pic of the worm??

 

[crvz]

agreed, most worms will only scavenge on a dead clam, but an image would greatly help any possible ID.

 

[LeslieH]

There are several worms in the family Oenonidae that are specialized mollusc predators. Oenone fulgida (you can search here on RC for pictures & more info) is the best known and it's not uncommon in LR. They produce mucus with a paralytic agent that paralyzes the snail or clam in order to eat it. Tridacnas will be eaten as readily as cleaner snails. If your Tridacna is doing poorly & there's blobs of slime on it in the morning then you almost certainly have Oenone or a related species. You can try baiting it with a market clam or cleaner snails in a bottle or try to pluck it out at night.

 

[LeslieH]

I just saw your post in the regional forum and you mentioned slime on the clam. You've got one and should move the clam to another tank so it isn't killed before you catch the predator.