Help Maxie Not Doing Well

[mrpet]

i have a 5 to 6" blue maxie i have had it for over a year he is not comming out of his shell kinda sucked in a bit i have been fighting the damn pyramid snails he had a few on him so i removed them my other 5 clams all look great...3 400w 20,000k and 3 160w vhos all my sps corals look great all water conditions are good..any suggestions? damn this is my favorite clam if he kicks it i will cry :( jk...but i will be really upset anyone has an idea what to do that will be great thanks scott

[Reefcherie]

Pyramidelline snails feed at night on the clam's lymphatic fluid. If just one or two are present, an otherwise healthy clam generally can withstand the attack, but when there are more, this feeding reduces the clam's defense mechanism and they then generally die.

Make sure you are diligent about looking for these snails at night when they feed. Search not just the shell's mantle area, but also the rest of the shell and the nearby substrate. You will need to check around all your clams and any large snails in your tank (such as those big Mexican turbos). Just because the other clams look fine now doesn't mean they also are not being fed upon.

If manual removal appears to be failing due to the sheer quantity of these parasitic snails in your system, you might consider introduction of a juvenile Coris wrasse (you would need to plan for its removal when its adult coloration appears), or possibly a sixline or fourline wrasse. Many have had success with these fish eating the parasitic snails.

Cheri

[Scuba Dog]

I 2nd the 6 line wrass I keep one just for that reason, to protect my clams, and they are a cool looking fish that are active and swimm around abunch, a yellow coris wrass is another fish that would do the same job....and there are a few other choices out there...

[Ramble On Rose]

Originally posted by Reefcherie
You will need to check around all your clams and any large snails in your tank (such as those big Mexican turbos).

wow, I didnt know that turbos could be harmful to a clam. I saw one on my clam last night and I just let it be... this morning the mantel its a little receeded where the snail was. is it generally not recomended to keep the larger turbos with a clam? I have never heard that before.

[Reefcherie]

I'm afraid you've misunderstood what I was saying about the Turbo Snails. They are not harmful to the clams. They are another place to check for the parasitic snails (and in fact are one of the ways these snails enter our tanks!). The parasitic snails will also feed on the lymphatic fluid of large snails - I've seen them do it. I hope that clears up the misunderstanding.

Cheri

[Ramble On Rose]

Originally posted by Reefcherie
I'm afraid you've misunderstood what I was saying about the Turbo Snails. They are not harmful to the clams. They are another place to check for the parasitic snails (and in fact are one of the ways these snails enter our tanks!). The parasitic snails will also feed on the lymphatic fluid of large snails - I've seen them do it. I hope that clears up the misunderstanding.

Cheri

few... got me worried. my turbos save me a lot of time on cleaning the glass and i have quite a few of them! lol now that a re-read your post, i dont know how i interpreted that wrong... sorry. Is there any places to see some pictures of the parasitic snails to get a better idea of what they look like?

[Reefcherie]

Originally posted by Ramble On Rose
Is there any places to see some pictures of the parasitic snails to get a better idea of what they look like?

You could try a search here on RC (and if not here - try Google) for "Pyramidelline snail." If you own a clam however, I highly recommend getting Daniel Knop's "Giant Clams" book. Everything you need to know about these clams is in there along with many pictures. There are great pictures of the parasitic snails in there.

Basically they are smaller than a grain of rice, very pale beige/white, elongate and have tapered, pointed shells.

Cheri

[Johnsteph10]

Reefcherie --
I was my impression that there are multiple species of the pyramedlline snails and that they are specific as to their hosts/prey type (ie: there are those that feed on astreas and then there are those that feed on clams, but not both).

Is this information wrong and/or could you point me to some other information?

thanks,
John

[mrpet]

bought 3 six lines today hope it works out thanks all scott

[Reefcherie]

Originally posted by Johnsteph10
Reefcherie --
I was my impression that there are multiple species of the pyramedlline snails and that they are specific as to their hosts/prey type (ie: there are those that feed on astreas and then there are those that feed on clams, but not both).

Is this information wrong and/or could you point me to some other information?

thanks,
John

Hmmm....I can't point to any scientific text on the topic, but based on my own experience, I don't think that is true. When I had an infestation of the the parasitic snails in my 180, I found them attacking my clams and definitely saw what appeared to be the identical snails on two of those big Mexican Turbo snails. If they were different species, there was no visible difference to the naked eye. You could be right and the differences between species are very subtle. The fact that I had both at the same time could have been coincidental.

Cheri