How I deal with Pyram snails, the Giant Clam parasitic snails.

[OrionN]

Parasitic snails in the family Pyramidellidae, commonly known by reefers as Pyram snails, is one of the major reasons why new clam keepers who do not know about these parasites cannot keep Giant clams for any length of time. Infestation of these tiny snails in our aquarium will wipe out the entire Giant clam population, given a little time, unless we take steps to eliminate them from our system.

There are many ways we can try to eliminate them from our system. Biological control does not seem to work very well for me in my tank. I am sure there are predators of these snails exist in the wild and in aquarium. I myself never able to get a wrasse or 10 that would eliminate these snails from my system. The best way to do this is, IME, manual removal.

I recently obtain a wild caught T. noae from Viet Nam. Because wild caught clams often come with parasites or something else that is worst, I QT my Teardrop clam in my QT system. It arrived late in the evening, and I was very busy that day so I just put it into my QT tank, on thick sand so he will not attach to anything and did not deal with it until the weekend.

As I predicted, the clam have multiple parasitic snails on it. Attached is how I deal with these parasites.

Pictures of Pyram snails under the mantle and byssas gland opening.

I use a metal spoon and knock all the scutes off the shell, all of them. This makes it so much easier to clean the shell.
I use both tooth brush and larger cleaning brush to scrub everything off the clam shell. I have a gallon of tank water that I can dip the clam in to make sure I clean everything I can.

Once finished cleaning, I placed the clam back into the QT tank, take care place him on the opposite side of the tank. I will take him out and clean him weekly for several weeks. Once I detected no Pyram snail, I lengthen the time in between cleaning. After 6 week with no Pyram snail, and if the clam is doing well and growing, he is ready for DT.

Enjoy your clams everybody. Hope this write up help keep a few more beautiful clams alive in our aquarium.

 

[Breadman03]

That’s almost exactly how I treated my gigas when it came in, with the exception that I only had a 10 gallon tank running at the time due to an unfortunately timed tank reboot. It now seems to be doing well in a Rubbermaid stock tank.

 

[twiatr2001]

I'm having a hard time seeing the snails, I'm not sure what they look like but would like to know because I will be getting at least one or two clams.

 

[hart24601]

I have been brushing them since October of last year. It’s a pain. I nearly thought I was finally done... but saw one a couple weeks ago dang it.

 

[OrionN]

I'm having a hard time seeing the snails, I'm not sure what they look like but would like to know because I will be getting at least one or two clams.

I cropped the pictures to only show part of the picture with these elongated pointed snails. They are about 2mm, smaller than a grain of rice. Hope this help.

 

[hart24601]

Here they are on mine when I found them too.

 

[OrionN]

I have been brushing them since October of last year. It’s a pain. I nearly thought I was finally done... but saw one a couple weeks ago dang it.

Take them out of the tank, break all the scutes and cut the attachment rock off. Only then you can properly clean with a brush, under bright light so you can see. Have some tank water on hand so you can rinse the clams as you clean them. I rarely take more than 2 times to get all the snails off.

 

[hart24601]

Take them out of the tank, break all the scutes and cut the attachment rock off. Only then you can properly clean with a brush, under bright light so you can see. Have some tank water on hand so you can rinse the clams as you clean them. I rarely take more than 2 times to get all the snails off.

Oh I have been. Over and over. Have a dental pick and couple brushes and use a headlamp. Even have the clams in Tupperware of sand and toss it each time. I really can’t imagine it only taking twice, but good for you! My friend is also battling them and cleans each week and has still been finding some after a month or two now. Heck I went at least a month without seeing one but still scrubbing then seeing a single small one after that.

 

[OrionN]

That large brush is a 2X2 inches scrubber with hard bristles. It scrub the heck out of the shell, Nothing get leave behind other than coraline algae.

 

[twiatr2001]

okay wow now I see them, never new that, very good information, what do these snails do to aggravate the clam.

 

[OrionN]

They suck the juice out of the clam.

 

[twiatr2001]

awesome, LOL, what signs of distress do you look for when these are attacking the clam?

 

[OrionN]

It was more than 25 years ago when I first/last lost a clam to them. I remembered it was (seem) fine, then just died overnight. I remembered that it was not growing, no white rim on the shells. Maybe some people with more recent experience can chime in.

Just look for these snails on new arrive clams, and periodically on all your clams. remove them if you see them. if you do, then it is time to do cleaning and routine checks.

Snails, turbo and the likes, can have similar pests. These pest will kill the host snails too. IME, snail parasitic Pyrams do not cross infect Tridacna clams, and vice versa.

 

[jeffrey750750]

awesome, LOL, what signs of distress do you look for when these are attacking the clam?

Worse case scenario

 

[jeffrey750750]

Take them out of the tank, break all the scutes and cut the attachment rock off. Only then you can properly clean with a brush, under bright light so you can see. Have some tank water on hand so you can rinse the clams as you clean them. I rarely take more than 2 times to get all the snails off.

You mention, break all the scores? Are these what your talking about?

 

[OrionN]

Scutes are shelf or scale-like structures on the shell.

 

[jeffrey750750]

Scutes are shelf or scale-like structures on the shell.

Do they have anything to do with vermatid snails

 

[twiatr2001]

Thank you for all the good info, this is so helpful long-term.

 

[twiatr2001]

I've kept some small clams and they were good for a while and the just died I wonder if they had these on them, once the clam is gone do these snails then die as well or do they live on in the system?

 

[OrionN]

Do they have anything to do with vermatid snails

No. I remove everything from the shell by knock them off with the metal spoon so I can scrub the shell free of Pyrams and egg masses of these Pyrams.

I've kept some small clams and they were good for a while and the just died I wonder if they had these on them, once the clam is gone do these snails then die as well or do they live on in the system?

These are obligate parasites of clams so they starve once all the clams are removed or died. How long? I am not sure. Pyrams that infected snails do not infect clams. There are also free living snails that looks very similar to these parasites, so just because you see a small white snail crawling in a clam-less tank, does not mean these are parasitic snails.

I just had hand surgery so i am typing only with my L hand so you guys just have to forgive my slow typing and mistakes