What killed my small clam?

[Freddo]

About a month ago my clam died. It was about 1.5" long,was about two weeks old. It looked fine for two weeks, then woke up one morning and shell was wide open and it was gone.

Known Inhabitants include:
Yellow Tang, Flame Angel, 2 Cardinals, 1 Royal Gramma, 2 Gold Striped Maroon Clowns, 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 1 Blood Shrimp, 2 Peppermint Shrimp, 1 Mandarin, several Blue Legs, Several Astreas, and 2 small hairy crabs (one since removed) inbetween a nickel and a quarter in size...

Given the quick death (the clam looked fine, no gaping, it had attched to a rock, etc.) I am suspicious of either the blue legs or the Hairy Crabs.

Any ideas?

FYI water quality is fine, it's a 110G tank...

thanks,

Fred

 

[Freddo]

Additional inhabitants include 2 small cukes, roughly 1.5 - 2" long and about the diameter of your pinky finger...

They only come out at night - I have no idea where they live...

 

[davelin315]

I have also had mixed results with small clams. My opinion is that, given the fact that it was completely gone from the shell overnight, I would guess that you just got an unhealthy clam since the entire body was gone which leads me to believe it was slowly deteriorating as the flesh seperated from the shell. Not that you don't have several potential predators there (the flame angel, the blue legs, and the crabs), but my guess is it was just a weak clam.

 

[Tadashi]

Small clams are known to have high mortality rates. Hence, the cheap price. I think it is stress that kills them.

I got a couple crocea clams, both were the same size and were next to each other. One lived and the other died within a week. Although both looked great. The one that died looked fine and then an hour later every nassarious in the tank was trying to eat it.