hermit crabs and peppermint shrimp picking at crocea clam

[Jamie1210]

I had 2 croceas in my tank. Now I am down to 1, which is also getting picked on by hermit crabs!

So I've had these 2 clams for about 3 months now. Sitting on sand, foot anchored to a piece of rock. Very healthy, always open, etc. Recently, the suction cup on my maxijet 1200 powerhead has been lose and blowing sand on Clam #1, and it's become sorta lopsided, I guess stressing it out. I repositioned it a couple times and it attached fine again to the piece of rubble. It looked HEALTHY. Then, yesterday morning, I woke up to find 4 hermit crabs and a shrimp eating it! The flesh was about 80 percent gone!

Meanwhile, clam #2 has been looking great--the powerhead didn't blow the sand where it was at at all.

This morning, I found more hermit crabs picking at it, and I quickely removed them to my sump. Now, the area where they were picking at is having difficulty opening.

Parameters are "normal" being:

Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 11.2 dKH/ 4.00 meq/L
Ca: >500 ppm
Nitrates: 5 ppm

didn't bother checking ammonia or nitrites because nothing else is having problems.

So, my question is, what're your experiences with your cleanup crew eating your clam? Does this mean the clam is unhealhty somehow?

Also, I'm thinking of getting rid of hermit crabs entirely and just getting an assortment of snails--i'm sick of them knocking over corals, etc.

Thanks!

[cowboyswife]

I have a crocea clam, and my hermits have never touched it. So maybe someone else can chime in on that one. Ive heard of alot of people that went to a snail only cleanup crew. I just like hermits too much to get rid of them :)