Clam Preditors

[bushwacker]

I had two clams in my tank. A 6-7" Crocea and a 6" gold Maxima's. They where both doing very well but then with in two weeks of each other they both died. My water params are perfect and I run two 400W MH lights on a 250gal reef tank. I have heard stars can bother and kill clams. I have 3 sand sifting, 1 orange linkia and 5 Brittle stars. Do you all think any of those may have killed the clams? Thanks

 

[nycbob]

could be the brittles. thats a lot of starfish in a tank. if the brittles were in the tank for a while, it shouldnt attack ur clams now. any worms?

 

[renogaw]

poly clad flatworm i'd bet

 

[bushwacker]

I have had the Brittles for 4 years. Started out with one and they just kept splitting. They are 8 - 10" long.

 

[bushwacker]

I have not seen any worms. The 250 gal tank has only been up for ~6mon. I had a 55 gal reef for 5 years I trasnfered all the suff over except the sand. I started the new tank out with all new life sand so the only way they could have gotten in there is if they came over in the 80lbs of live rock from my 55 or the 250lbs of other live rock I added later. One of the clams was in the sand bed the other in the live rock. The one in the live rock died first.

 

[nycbob]

very hard to pinpoint an exact reason. perhaps of old age?

 

[jpa0741]

Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/3043837
very hard to pinpoint an exact reason. perhaps of old age?
Definitly not old age. Did you check for pyramid snails?

 

[florida joe]

what fish do you have

 

[nycbob]

Originally Posted by jpa0741
http:///forum/post/3044233
Definitly not old age. Did you check for pyramid snails?
i hv pyramid snails in my tank. it isnt enough to kill a big clam that fast overnight. the clam would actually show sign by not extending its mantle as far, if pyramid snails were hiding underneath it.

 

[jpa0741]

Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/3044271
i hv pyramid snails in my tank. it isnt enough to kill a big clam that fast overnight. the clam would actually show sign by not extending its mantle as far, if pyramid snails were hiding underneath it.
The OP did not say they died overnight but within 2 weeks of each other. It can be a number of things. PM, predators, params.

 

[nycbob]

yes they died within two weeks. a clam would definitely hv shown signs of stress days b4 it dies if it was pyramid snails. without more info from the bushwacker, it is very hard to pinpoint a cause, since everyones tank is different.