Queen Conch

[kilbys4]

I just added a small clam, about the size of a silver dollar, with little red hairs coming out from the shell. Well during the night my queen conch found it and ate the clam. I thought they only ate alge and waste? Would it have ate the clam while it was alive or could it have died during the night? When I placed the clam in the tank the conch went straight for it and I moved it to another part of the tank. If it did kill my clam, is there anything else I need to keep away from it?
Thanks

 

[bwmichael21]

was this a clam or a flame scallop ?, anyways i haven't heard of a conch eating that. only algae and diatoms

 

[reef fool]

Conches have been known to eat clams. I also watched a horse conch eat turbo snails at my LFS!

 

[kilbys4]

Sorry, it was a flamed scallop.

 

[tlk]

guess you just found out the hard way to check the compatibility between your existing livestock and potential new tank mates (or lunch as the case was here)

 

[bang guy]

A Queen Conch is incapable of digesting a Flame Scallop. If your snail ate your File Clam then it wasn't a Queen Conch. Do you have a picture of the Snail?

 

[kilbys4]

Maybe you can tell by this picture what kind it is.

 

[bang guy]

The only thing I can tell for sure in the pic is that your snail isn't a Strombus gigas. You do not have a Queen Conch.
It could be some type of Pleuroploca sp., perhaps P. persica. It could also be some other snail I'm not familiar with. A really good picture of the opening might help. If it is Pleuroploca sp. then it will eat anything it can catch. Snails, Clams, worms, whatever. it will probably not eat coral but if it got hungry enough it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[kilbys4]

Here's a shot of the opening to the shell as you can see it didnt want to let loose of some cc.

 

[bang guy]

Pleuroploca persica is a good a guess as I'm going to be able to muster. Still just a guess though.