Nassarius eat my derasa clam?

[facecambron]

I had 5 nassarius in a tank that wasnt getting fed (2 months with no livestock in it and no feeding) and i plan on taking the tank down, so i took the 5 nassarius and put them in my 55 gallon last night. This morning i wake up to a dead clam with every nassarius eating at it (10 nassarius in my 55). Peramiters and everything are perfect and its been a super health clam until i added 5 nassarius. It was open and happy and has been growing like crazy. Could they have killed it because they were hungry?

 

[TX_REEF]

I have never personally seen a nassarius kill anything, in my experience they only try to eat things that are dead or close to it.

 

[NanoSteam]

Maybe they were starved to desperation? but like TX_REEF said I've never seen them attack anything and I've had them in every tank, only what's dead or near death.

 

[facecambron]

I have never personally seen a nassarius kill anything, in my experience they only try to eat things that are dead or close to it.

Thats why i came here iv had this clam for a long while and the only thing i added or changed since iv gotten it was adding the nassarius

 

[gbroadbridge]

I had 5 nassarius in a tank that wasnt getting fed (2 months with no livestock in it and no feeding) and i plan on taking the tank down, so i took the 5 nassarius and put them in my 55 gallon last night. This morning i wake up to a dead clam with every nassarius eating at it (10 nassarius in my 55). Peramiters and everything are perfect and its been a super health clam until i added 5 nassarius. It was open and happy and has been growing like crazy. Could they have killed it because they were hungry?

Yes, some nassarius snails are known to prey on clams.

It's unusual but not unheard of.

 

[exnisstech]

I have 10 large nassarius in with 5 clams in a 20g and the snails only come out of the sand when they smell food.
Its not unusual for a clam to go months and die overnight if their needs are not being met. Did the clam have a nice white growth band?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I imagine a healthy clam would clam shut, not just stay open and let itself get slowly eaten. The only info we have is what you told us, but there's so much info missing from this story that I can't conclude that the snails did it.

 

[BryanM]

Can you get pics of the snails, I'm curious if one or more might be a whelk.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Can you get pics of the snails, I'm curious if one or more might be a whelk.

+1

I'm often suspicious that some of the reports of Nassarius snails eating healthy clams, is actually a misidentification of the snail due to surface similarities.

 

[facecambron]

Can you get pics of the snails, I'm curious if one or more might be a whelk.

Thats one of them some of them have whiter shells. I dont have any pictures of it while it was alive recently but the flesh band was big and white its foot was out and everything. I have also been feeding it every single day sometimes multiple times a day if he looked hungry. He also never fully closed up except when i bought him, hes been open ever since will slightly close when i blocked light or if one of my fish got too close. This is my first clam so i tried doing everything your supposed to, to a t.
Gravity is at 1.025
Cal 422
Mag 1299
Ph 8.2
Alk 9

 

[facecambron]

I have 10 large nassarius in with 5 clams in a 20g and the snails only come out of the sand when they smell food.
Its not unusual for a clam to go months and die overnight if their needs are not being met. Did the clam have a nice white growth band?

Yeah he was extremely healthy from what i could tell nice growth band, pretty colors, good foot in the sand. These nassarius never sucked up in their shell when i picked them out of the 20 gallon they stay fully extended out of their shell which is wierd to me. And when put in my 55 with the clam they just went all around the tank didnt see them go in the sand before i went to bed.

 

[facecambron]

Can you get pics of the snails, I'm curious if one or more might be a whelk.

Thats one of them some of them have whiter shells. I dont have any pictures of it while it was alive recently but the flesh band was big and white its foot was out and everything. I have also been feeding it every single day sometimes multiple times a day if he looked hungry. He also never fully closed up except when i bought him, hes been open ever since will slightly close when i blocked light or if one of my fish got too close. This is my first clam so i tried doing everything your supposed to, to a t.
Gravity is at 1.025
Cal 422
Mag 1299
Ph 8.2
Alk 9

I fed and got them to come out. These are the lighter colored ones that i put in last night the darker onea have been in here the entire time

 

[exnisstech]

I've read that's welks don't bury in the sand.
Could be my eyes but im not seeing a new growth band on that shell.

I lost clams in the past not having enough light but i didn't realized I was starving them. It can take months for a clam to starve and then they just shrivel up overnight.
This is one of my derasa showing the wide new band if growth.

 

[facecambron]

I've read that's welks don't bury in the sand.
Could be my eyes but im not seeing a new growth band on that shell.

I lost clams in the past not having enough light but i didn't realized I was starving them. It can take months for a clam to starve and then they just shrivel up overnight.
This is one of my derasa showing the wide new band if growth.

Is that the growth band you were talking about? Most of this algea wasnt there yesterday, it was just a white band around the mouth. It is a fairly small clam little less than 3 inches at its widest. Could i have been starving it even with target feeding every day? Could it just be a coincidence that it died 8 hours after i put those hungry nassarias in there?

 

[facecambron]

I imagine a healthy clam would clam shut, not just stay open and let itself get slowly eaten. The only info we have is what you told us, but there's so much info missing from this story that I can't conclude that the snails did it.

See i thought the same thing but one of my freinds said that he has heard stories of nassarius eating them so i figured id talk to the people that know from experience.

 

[exnisstech]

Clams do not need target feeding. They need strong light and nothing else. Many will say small clams need to be fed phyto but that isn't true. While it can benefit them it isn't necessary.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I had 5 nassarius in a tank that wasnt getting fed (2 months with no livestock in it and no feeding) and i plan on taking the tank down, so i took the 5 nassarius and put them in my 55 gallon last night. This morning i wake up to a dead clam with every nassarius eating at it (10 nassarius in my 55). Peramiters and everything are perfect and its been a super health clam until i added 5 nassarius. It was open and happy and has been growing like crazy. Could they have killed it because they were hungry?

Yes they can and assure also nassarius and not whelks who for sure will

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Is that the growth band you were talking about? Most of this algea wasnt there yesterday, it was just a white band around the mouth. It is a fairly small clam little less than 3 inches at its widest. Could i have been starving it even with target feeding every day? Could it just be a coincidence that it died 8 hours after i put those hungry nassarias in there?

The top of the shell should be bone white, no algae at all. This clam had a growth band but stopped growing some time ago. IMO. Again, we have no info, no parameters, no lighting, tank age, etc... Even for fish, there are very few fish that can kill a clam in 8 hours, snails being so much smaller and slower, its too much of a stretch for me. Sorry for your loss

 

[exnisstech]

The top of the shell should be bone white, no algae at all. This clam had a growth band but stopped growing some time ago. IMO.

Now I'm watching mine. Been while since I've seen the shell . I had to fiddle with the clam to get it to close so I could see the growth line. Need to spend more time out at night.

EDIT Lights are out now.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Now I'm watching mine. Been while since I've seen the shell . I had to fiddle with the clam to get it to close so I could see the growth line. Need to spend more time out at night.

EDIT Lights are out now.

I lost one last year.

It looked really happy until it wasn't and crashed in days.
It was being shadowed by a monti and I hadn't noticed it wasn't growing.

It was obvious once the mantle retracted but then it was too late.