Who ate my deresa clam over night?

[rpkneumann]

At 11 pm I had a wonderful 4 inch deresa clam. Doing well.
At 7 am all what remained was an empty white completely cleaned out shell.

Can somebody help me identify a possible culprit before I get another one?

fish:
- 4 clowns - ocelaris
- 2 Banggai cardinals
- 1 court Chester goby
- 1 watchman goby
- 1 serpent starfish

- 1 fire shrimp
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 1 tiger pistol shrimp
- 3 peppermint shrimp
- 4 trochus snails
- 3 nassarius snails
- 10 hermits; one red, one blue rest Mexican brown

 

[JGT]

At 11 pm I had a wonderful 4 inch deresa clam. Doing well.
At 7 am all what remained was an empty white completely cleaned out shell.

Can somebody help me identify a possible culprit before I get another one?

fish:
- 4 clowns - ocelaris
- 2 Banggai cardinals
- 1 court Chester goby
- 1 watchman goby
- 1 serpent starfish

- 1 fire shrimp
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 1 tiger pistol shrimp
- 3 peppermint shrimp
- 4 trochus snails
- 3 nassarius snails
- 10 hermits; one red, one blue rest Mexican brown

Hmm, no obvious suspects. Would have to go with shrimp or crabs unless you have a hidden culprit unbeknownst to you.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I would hve to second the crabs.. but I would think they would of only done that if they were starving or the clam was already dying

 

[JGT]

I would hve to second the crabs.. but I would think they would of only done that if they were starving or the clam was already dying

Agreed.

 

[lmm1967]

Those Nassarius snails may be whelks - which will take out a clam overnight.

Once they drill through the shell and the clam starts then everything will get in on it - bristleworms, crabs etc

 

[92Miata]

It died, and cleanup crew cleaned it up. Clams are notorious for looking great up until the moment of death.

Any photos before/after?

 

[MERKEY]

Its really hard to say without any pics to see what might have done it.

Any recent pics of the clam? And thats a good thought @Imm1967 with the snails. OP any pics of the snails to identify them?

 

[vsolovyev]

They probably wouldn’t take it out over night but, I used to have peppermints that would reach into the mouths of my LPS and eat them from the inside out at night.

 

[Pistol Peet]

I have gone through 4 clams the same way and then all of a sudden the dirty rotten corporate show his face flatworm if you're having a hard time with clams and they are not staying alive definitely check for flatworms make a funnel trap out of a bottle with some straws silver side in there I've been catching them left and right this way

 

[Brandon3152134]

They probably wouldn’t take it out over night but, I used to have peppermints that would reach into the mouths of my LPS and eat them from the inside out at night.

I dont own shrimp for this exact reason

 

[terraincognita]

Lol unfortunately after I got to the bottom of this. I was just as curious as when I opened it if not more!

Definitely though probably best answers.

A. 1 of them started eating at it like the crabs or shrimps and once it started everyone else came for the feast.

B. It was dead/dying already, and the above sequence in A happened naturally.

C. You have clam eating flatworms.

 

[rpkneumann]

Its really hard to say without any pics to see what might have done it.

Any recent pics of the clam? And thats a good thought @Imm1967 with the snails. OP any pics of the snails to identify them?

 

[Pistol Peet]

I dont own shrimp for this exact reason

I second that I'm not owning any shrimp because of this reason to

 

[rpkneumann]

Only have one before picture. But took some after. No holes in shell.

 

[rpkneumann]

She was usually more open without a trochus cleaning her.

 

[Pistol Peet]

She was usually more open without a trochus cleaning her.

I would strongly suggest building a funnel trap and checking to see if you don't have some worms of some sort I went through this exact same situation in the culprit was a flatworm

 

[Qasimja]

i had a squamosa clam die on me a few months ago it was fine the day before the next morning all my snails were eating it

 

[rpkneumann]

I would strongly suggest building a funnel trap and checking to see if you don't have some worms of some sort I went through this exact same situation in the culprit was a flatworm

Any pointers on how to build the funnel trap?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Check for pyramid snails within tank. Crabs also a risk.
How long did you have clam?
If alk was above 9, salinity higher than 1.026 , ph above 8.3 and temperature above 80.... clam was probably dying.

 

[Pistol Peet]

Any pointers on how to build the funnel trap?

Take some kind of plastic water bottle poke holes in the side of it insert straws into the holes put a silver side in it