Squamosa in trouble?

[bigevill1]

I picked up a very large Squamosa (Spelling) clam saturday afternoon from my LFS. They had it for over 2 weeks and it looked quite healthy and at around 8 inches I couldnt pass it up. I have a 135 gallon reef tank with 2-250 watt MH and 2-175 watt MH with 4-55 watt PCs. My water parameters are all stable: PH 8.2, Nitrate less then 10. I acclimated the clam for about an hour and put it in the sand bed. After about 15 minutes it was open up and looking good. Sunday morning I woke up and it had moved alittle bit but still looked very good. Now this morning I got up and looked in with the flash light (lights dont turn on till 8:30 am) and the clams shell was covered in slime, and all of the sand around it and rocks near it were also covered with slime. Also the clam was slight tilted to its side instead of sitting straight up and down. I saw two pyram (spelling?) on the shell and removed them right away, but they would not have caused all the slime would they? and would just two of them be enough to cause stress to a clam that big? Also I do not have any other clams in my tank so those had to have come in with the clam correct? I didnt notice them on there before I placed it in the tank, but I admit that I didnt scour it for them. I am afraid to move the clam now to see if there is anything under neath it becuase it seems to have attached to the glass bottom of the tank thru the sand bed which is only about 2" deep where it sits. So......what do I do here?

[a4twenty]

you need to look for more, if there are two there could be dozens. remove the clam and inspect / brush the shell, looking in every scute and hole. they can usually be found under the clam during the day and under there mantle feasting at night. it is better to look a few hours after the lights out every day for now, until you are sure the are gone, then gradually reduce inspections.

it would be helpful if you could post a pic of the clam when tank lights are back on.

[bigevill1]

So did they cause the slime that was all over the clam and all over the sand around the clam? I just called my wife and she said it does not look very good, but she isnt an expert by any strech of the imagination. Also wouldnt the clam had looked bad at the store from all those snails if they were already there? I dont think they were in my tank as I didnt have any other clams in there.....

[ezcompany]

think of pyramid snails as a slow death. the rate the clam is affected though, increases exponentially as the snails multiply. Maximas and Croceas as I know them do not slime up to the extent you've mentioned. Either way, you need to remove the clam from the bottom carefully and do a thorough inspection of the clam scutes, byssal opening, and everywhere else.

[bigevill1]

Ok, I moved it up onto the rocks and looked it over very good. It was diffenately getting eatn from something thru the sand bed the way it looks. The foot is gone, and the mantel is almost fully receeded, but it did whince a few times as I inspected it. I did not find anymore snails onit, but I did find some sacks so I wiped them off. What now?

[ezcompany]

keep a close eye on it. after the lights go out and it has been pitch black for at least an hour, gently remove the clam, get a flashlight and give it another thorough inspection.

[bigevill1]

well where it is it is leaning on the glass on the back of the tank at the very top just abotu 3 inches under the surface of the water. I will not have to move it at all to see if anything is on it. My biggest fear is that I have some huge predatory worm in my tank somewhere. I have seen a few of my larger snails be totally slimed and eaten before but never saw the culprit. That being said I have several large snails that have been in my tank for years. I would think anything that would be picking them off would have picked them all off by now. I do know that I have several very large bristle worms, but they are garden vareity I know that much.......

[a4twenty]

are you sure the snails were pyramids??

could you possibly post a picture of them and your clam?

[bigevill1]

there were only two of them. They looked just like any picture I have ever seen of them. They were removed as soon as I saw them. Now I do have several small snails on my larger snails that I assume are parasitic as well, but I was told that those would be snail specific and would most likely leave clams alone. Once again though, parasitic snails would not make an 8" clam go from beautiful to half dead in one night, right?

[ezcompany]

probably not.
however, you should still remove the clam for inspection of pyramid snails as they can be hiding in the smallest nooks in the clam. Also it is not safe to assume that the smaller snails attached to your larger snails will leave your clam alone.

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11121681#post11121681 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bigevill
My biggest fear is that I have some huge predatory worm in my tank somewhere. I have seen a few of my larger snails be totally slimed and eaten before but never saw the culprit.

thats exactly whats going on

[bigevill1]

So how do I take care of that? I had a smaller crocea a few months ago, that died after it got knocked off its rock by another falling rock. The foot got ripped out and it was dead a few days later, but it stayed alive for a few months before that happened.

[mbbuna]

you have to find and catch the worm. i would run out to the market and get some clams and put them on the sand where the clam was. then get some red cellophane (auto parts store, cheep fix for broken tail light) and put the cellophane over a flashlight. marine animals don't see red very well, wait for the lights to go out and watch for the worm to come feed on the clams. then catch it or as much of it as you can

[mbbuna]

oenone fulgida is most likely the species you are dealing with, nasty worm. if you cant catch it at least find out what rock it calls home and remove the rock

[bigevill1]

so by moving the clam about 20 inches up on to the rocks did I get it out of this worms reach do you think?

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11123767#post11123767 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bigevill
so by moving the clam about 20 inches up on to the rocks did I get it out of this worms reach do you think?

no


how is the clam doing ?

[bigevill1]

it looks better then it did at lunch, but it is still not extending past the edge of the shell. It is gaping a ton as well.

[bigevill1]

So I checked for my killer worm 4 times last night ranging between 10 PM and 5 AM with a red light and no signs of anything. No parasitic snails either. I did find that I have at least one of the shrimps mentioned in this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1182039&highlight=shrimp+identification
living inside this clam though. Pretty neat. Too bad it will die if the clam does. The clam did look better this morning then it did yesterday at lunch when I moved it up high on the rocks, but that doesnt mean much at this point. I will just keep watching it and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for everybodies help so far. I will be incredibly happy if this clam pulls it out. Even though I only had it for 36 hours before it went down hill it had already become my favorite animal in the tank.

[mbbuna]

keep bate in the tank and keep looking for that worm. good luck

[bigevill1]

Would you recommend putting like some scallops in a two liter bottle and seeing if I can get the worm to crawl in it? I mean, would the worm pull the scallops out of the bottle, or would it eat them where they lay?

[mbbuna]

these worms can get very large. most of the time they can hunt throughout the tank with out there back end leaving the borough. so a bottle trap probably wont work because the whole worm wont go into it. your best bet is going to be either find the rock its in and remove it, grab it with tweezers, or cut its head off

[bigevill1]

if you cut its head off will it die? I kinda figured it would just regrow one. Also just to verify, if I do have one of these worms wouldnt it be eating other things in my tank as well? I have tons of LPS corals and such that are all doing great. Just curious......

[mbbuna]

i dont think they can regenerate there head.

you said you had snails that got killed and were all slimmed up so it has been eating. AFIK they only eat mollusc's so it wont be affecting your corals

[bigevill1]

good enough.

[ezcompany]

did you set up a trap?

[bigevill1]

I am going to tonight. That being said, the clam is gone. It is almost completely closed up and the colors have faded to getting close to black.