I just got a small Squamosa clam today. It is on a rock up high so that it's close to the light. Problem is, my astrea snails and blue leg hermits seem to be drawn to it. Every time I turn around they are crawling all over. Should I be worried--will they hurt it?
Will snails or crabs hurt my clam?
- Thread starter kcinminni
- Start date
I believe the stress of the clam, whatever distress signal it gives off, is what attracts most hermits. Hermits are the main concern, have heard of them attacking clams just after introduction. I simply brushed them off the clam, maxima, every time I saw them even close to the rock it was placed on. You might try to construct a barrier of some sort to keep them away until the clam fully acclimates
regular snails won't bother your clam, There are snail like parasites that do cause damage but these are not purchased at fish shops and usualy hitch hike on a piece of LR. The ones that come to mind are quite small 3-4mm in legnth and are cone shaped.
I would guess that some crabs could cause damage,
"the red eye crabes" but most common crabs such as sally light foot crabs and blue legs ect won't cause it any harm.
Good luck
PS make sure your new clam has all the light it needs and Ca.
Randall
I would guess that some crabs could cause damage,
"the red eye crabes" but most common crabs such as sally light foot crabs and blue legs ect won't cause it any harm.
Good luck
PS make sure your new clam has all the light it needs and Ca.
Randall
Innovator is right about Squamosa preferring the sandy substrate to rock work. My snails and crabs will on occasion clean my clam shells without a problem, but I always keep a close eye on my crabs when I see it to make sure noone is getting too frisky. Most crabs are by nature opportunistic feeders and if hungry enough, could possibly go after just about anything.
I had an incident with snails killing one of my clams. With my florida live rock these conch like snails (I forget the scientific name of them right now) hitchiked and they weren't hurting anything at first. Then one day I came home and 10 of them were on one of my clams, it looked like they started from the bottom of the clam where it's foot was and killed it. I took out the dead clam and the snails ALL started for my other maxima. I quickly gathered all the snails and put them in a small tank I have for "bad" critters and haven't had a problem since. So if you have snails like this I would watch out or remove them all together. I have never had a problem with hermit crabs though, or turbo snails. Watch out for emerald crabs though. When I first brought my clams home the small hermits would crawl all over the shell and annoy the clam but it looked like they were just cleaning stuff off the shell because they stopped after a couple hours. I still keep my eye on them though.
HTH
Erica
HTH
Erica
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