Clam Killers

[marrone]

I had 2 clams die and it seems to the culprit is a Conch that I've had in the tank for a over 1 year. It never did anything to my other corals and one of the clams that died had been in the tank for over a month the other about 1 weeks. At first I just thought that the clam died but a couple days later I found the Conch on top of the other clam in the morning, just before the lights came on, and I though nothing of it, the clams was still alive and trying to close, so I though nothing of it until I came home and the clam was die. As soon as the lights went off the Conch came right back to the dead clam and was back on it, I think it was trying to eat it. I move the Conch out of the tank, to protect my other clams. From everything I read Conch are surpost to live in the sand bed and not activily hunt and kill things. Has any one had such a problem.

Michael

 

[Deanos]

Queen conchs (Strombus gigas) and fighting conchs (Strombus alatus) are strict vegetarians; they are not even opportunistic carnivores. You may have a whelk, which is bad news, since they eat clams.

Get us a picture for a more precise identification.

Dean

 

[marrone]

Mine doesn't look like that and it's alot larger. Also mine does bury itself in the sand. Actually until recently I hadn't seen it for months as it was buried in the sand. Mine also has a different shell and is lite in color. I'm going to do a search and see if they're different ones than what's in the picture on the post. The funny thing is that when one of the clams died it didn't eat it as the clam was still in the shell. Either way it's in my sump now don't want to take a chance on my larger clams even though I lost a really nice black Crocea with Gold rim.

 

[Deanos]

More whelk news.

 

[marrone]

What really sucks is it took me a while to find a couple really nice clam and sure enough it went for the those and left the 2 other clams that I could care less about alone.

 

[Deanos]

It obviously knows good chowder when it sees it. Sorry about the loss.

 

[yessongs]

IMO. the clam was decaying and you thought the conch was killing it.
If you walk along the shore/beach and see clam shells with perfect holes in them like they were drilled, that was done by conchs that eat clams. They dont try and pry them open.

 

[marrone]

The clam was health and I have it for quite awhile without any problem. The clam was always fully open, and it was fine the night before, and just as the light came on the conch was on top of and it's proboscis was trying to get inside the shell. The clam was trying to close tight and you could see the flesh from the open.

Also I hadn't seen the conch in quite sometime and then I started to see it a couple of days just before the first clam died and it was in the same area as the clam.

I have 4 other clams, beside the 2 that died, and all were and still are doing good. They were fully opened all the time and happy where they where in the tank.

 

[yessongs]

Sorry about this Mike, Define "quite sometime" I also raised a lot of Tridacnid Clams. Most of my limited Knowledge in this hobby is about clams.
They look healthy and try to close but they are decaying, most conch's an snails cant smell live animals, and dont conceder them food. Unless the mollusks are predatory.
If not they might go for the byssal.

Mike honestly im sorry for your loss, i lost a true BLACK maxima in a rock slide, $300+ clam but i liked it if it was worth $3. luckily i had another.

Off subject... i was going to ask this in the other thread, how was the clam you bought from Fishy Business, was it collected properly for our hobby?

 

[marrone]

I didn't see any decaying and the clam looks great, actually both clams did. It just happened that the conch was never out until the clam was place near where it usally is. Well anyway I move the conch to the refug and all the other clams are fine.

Fishy Business lists their clams as being Cultured for Bali with a couple of wild ones in there. They told me that they seperate all their clams, from different shipments, for about 2 weeks and quartine before they sell them. They list on their web site that they have exclusive type of clams so they must be dealing with some one directly.The clams that I got were very nice and in good condition. They opened right away and have been doing really well, they also look just like the pictures on the web site. Also Fishy Business packs everything very well probably one of the best packing of coral/clams that I've seen.

 

[yessongs]

Glad to hear it worked out with FB. Were they attached to rocks, did they have byssal gland and threads?

 

[marrone]

They weren't attached to anything but the byssal gland and threads seemed intacted thought a little shreded. The bottom of the shell was cut like a straight line unlike the wild ones where the bottom is alittle more rounded. You can defintely tell that they where culture and not wild caught.