Dead Derasa Clam...Help!

[Avp]

Should I do a large water change? I'm worried because I didn't find any of the flesh to remove from the tank. I have a 55 gallon reef tank. The clam seemed fine last night and this morning but I came home from work today and the 3 inch shell was hollowed out. I'm not sure how much of it my crabs and shrimp have eaten. Will this rot and foul the water even if I do a water change?

 

[Eternal]

I would think your cuc has taken care of most of it if you found nothing. I would do a water change just for peace of mind.

 

[BlazinNano]

+1 on the water change. Just to be safe.

 

[Captain Nemo]

That stinks bro, and yes do the water change just to be on the safe side.

 

[Avp]

Thanks for the advice! Do you think a 25% water change is good?

 

[skinz78]

I would do a 10g change just to be on the safe side.

On another note, what do you think might have happened?

What fish and inverts do you have?

 

[Avp]

Not sure what might have happened...I've only had the clam since Saturday but it seemed to be doing great. I have an algae blenny, two firefish gobies, cleaner shrimp, pepermint shrimp, turbo snails, and hermit crabs, various LPS and softies. Water parameters are good.

 

[skinz78]

Hmm, I have had issues with Peppermint shrimp picking on clams in the past.

 

[Avp]

I wonder if he's the culprit?

 

[DustinB]

Look at the growth ring, is it bright white or gray? The only time I've ever seen an issue with a shrimp/hermits eating a clam was on one that was on the way out. If everything in the tank was good, you can normally see the clam was in bad shape for a long time before you got it by a gray growth ring.

 

[skinz78]

I've had Derasa's with a grey growth ring that lasted a year. Sometimes they just stop growing in length and put on thickness to their shell.