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

[twiatr2001]

no big deal, thank you again for all the info, its very helpful, hand surgery sucks, I now I had some about a year ago, very painful, once again thank you and get some rest especially with the hand.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge @OrionN!

 

[Phycodurus]

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.

thank you for the detailed tutorial. i quickly got smitten with tridacna clams when i got back into the hobby. i respectfully offer the attached pic that i saved some time ago (apologies i don’t know to whom i should credit the pic). at least i hope it helps people avoid any unnecessary worry about whether or not they have pyramidellid snails.

 

[OrionN]

Thanks for this detail information and picture.
there are also Pyram snails that prey on snails. IME, these Pyram snails do not prey on clams. The parasites are genus specific IMO. Manual removal is also the best way to deal with these snail parasites.

 

[OrionN]

One month after removing all the pests from the clam, it is doing well

 

[OrionN]

Same clam today

 

[OrionN]

My wild caught Noae clam have acclimated to my tank and start growing as seen in the picture below. I expect no further problem. If he died it is because of disaster or stupidity from me.

 

[OrionN]

with the parasite burden gone, my Noae is really growing well. I irritated the mantel here to exposed the new grow over the last 3 months since I had him in my tank. Picture on 10/2/2020.

 

[hart24601]

Awesome to see!

 

[code4]

I have been reading everything I can about clams so I can be successful with them. Those little snails are nasty. I seen that you keep your clam out of the water quite a bit with no ill effects during the snail removal process. When you first get the clam what is your process of acclimation? And do you acclimate the clam before you start freeing it of any pests?

 

[OrionN]

I have been reading everything I can about clams so I can be successful with them. Those little snails are nasty. I seen that you keep your clam out of the water quite a bit with no ill effects during the snail removal process. When you first get the clam what is your process of acclimation? And do you acclimate the clam before you start freeing it of any pests?

In this case I keep the clam in my QT system for almost a week before I have time to work on him and clean the shell and remove all the Pyramids. It is better if you do this before put them in the tank to make sure none of the parasites get into your tank. Since I have a DT system and have no clams in it. Loosing a few parasites in there will not be a problem, they just starve, thus dead either way.
While cleaning the clam I have a bucket of tank water to rinse him as I clean him, to make sure I get everything.

 

[code4]

Thank you, you put a lot into your system and it shows. Awesome

Shelley

 

[Superlightman]

Is this a pyramid snail?

 

[OrionN]

Is this a pyramid snail?

That is not a Pyramid snail

 

[OrionN]

It was almost 1 year ago when I got this Noae. He is growing and is doing very well in my DT once all the parasites were removed. Here are pictures of him right next to my Gigas today.