My maxima has a slit on his mantle

[mscarpena]

I have had a maxima clam now for about 2 years and he has been doing great and still looks great. I just recently moved him to a new aqarium because I am in the last stages of selling off a few corals from the tank he was in. I am taking that tank down. I noticed today that he has a small slit in his mantle. I have n Idea what this would be from. I moved him around and might have bumped him on a rock?? I do not think any of the tank mates would have done it, but here's my list let me know what you guys think. This tank has been set up for about 7 years now so I know there areno hitchhikers that I don't know about like large crabs or anything. The slit is about 1/4" long. He is still opened up, but slightly retracted on that side. I also just added a new maxima yesterday. The tear is almost like a razor blade was taken to it and it looks like a pretty clean cut. It's pretty wierd.
Ocellaris clowns
firefish
2 small gobies
scarlet hermits-they were in both tanks
porcelian crabs-they were in both tanks as well
snails and corals-no chance
might be one medium sized pepermint shrimp, but had 3 in the other tank.

 

[candycane]

Hi.
I doubt it would get a slit in the mantle from you just moving it around. If I had to throw a guess out there, I would say something was going after something else - so it was most likely one of the crabs. Based on the amount of time you have had the clam, I would think it is big enough where it wouldn't be purposely harmed. If you have a picture, that would help though.

 

[mscarpena]

Thanks for the response, but I do not have a good enough camera to take a picture of him.
It does not seem to be affecting him negatively. It's just very weird that all of the sudden that the crab would go after him after 2 years. He is about 4.5" at the shell. I am just nervous because as I was adding my 1.5" baby Maxima is when I noticed this damage. It appeared to be fresh because it was leaking some stuff out of it. I don't know If I dropped something on him or knocked him against a rock. I have also been monitoring the clams at night and nothing seems to be near them. For now I will just continue to check on them nightly to see if anyone is picking on him. It seems to be a perfect slit not a nip or a tear. I think he will make it because he is wide open and looks healthy. Also it stopped leaking and does not look infected at all.

 

[mscarpena]

So by purposely harmed you think it was an accident and that the .75" porcelian crab did not take a stab at him for dinner. Also the porcelian crabs have never bothered anything at all. Most of the time they are filter feeding or just snag a few scraps that float by.

 

[candycane]

The larger clam, I doubt that one of the crabs would go after it on purpose. If that was the case, you would probably notice more and more rips in the mantle. The smaller one you might want to keep an eye on. See if it tips over a lot or spins around a lot or opens and shuts a lot. The issue I have had with every hermit is that they go after the newly formed byssal threads on smaller clams.
Just with larger ones I have noticed most of the time if something crawls on their shell that they don't want there, they slam shut and it flys off - so they usually have the ability to somewhat protect themselves; not to mention that is a pretty small crab.

 

[mscarpena]

I think your right because they both still look very healthy. I have been watching them lke a hawk and nothing seems to be bothering them. A hermit crab was near them the other day, but only used him as a"ladder" to climb down the rock. Other than that did not seem to pay too much attention to him at all. Well thanks for your help. I appreciate it.