Clam is Dead. Whats Next?

robert.talarico

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
Came home from work today to find my peppermint shrimp eating my maxima like it was a buffet. I recently purchased the shrimp to take care of an aiptasia problem. It worked great, but now that the food is gone is he going to eat more livestock? Haha does anyone need an aiptasia eating peppermint?
 

Cake_Boss

Blue Whale
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
Yes, he will eat your coral. Your acans are next. Solution = target feed him until he's not hungry anymore. There are also fish that eat shrimp. Sell/trade/auction/DBTC him, whatevers clever.

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spstimie

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
mikejrice;104731 said:
+1
If it's an Atlantic peppermint I wouldn't worry about it yet.
If you mean, Lysmata wurdemanni, my recovering Acans would beg to differ. They tore my acans up after the aiptasia were gone.
 
#6
mdrumm;104713 said:
and most likely your clam died first and then your shrimp ate it.
+1 again

I have had plenty of peps in my systems - never found them eating anything that was living. Anything they would get on I would watch and they were simply cleaning and getting food fallin around it (like at the base between zoas) or it was already dead/had dead tissue and they were doing what a CUC member is supposed to do. In some cases I could see how if you had an LPS that had already had tissue damage and they got on it to eat that - they could possibly damage the remaining healthy tissue too... But as far as clams go especially - I dont see it being your shrimp. Clams are way too strong... A healthy clam would close up on the shrimp and crush it!!!!!

And for the record - Lysmata wurdemanni are caribbean. Lysmata californica arent atlantic, they are pacific and arent known to eat aptasia. :)
 

mikejrice

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
honoreetamore;104757 said:
+1 again

I have had plenty of peps in my systems - never found them eating anything that was living. Anything they would get on I would watch and they were simply cleaning and getting food fallin around it (like at the base between zoas) or it was already dead/had dead tissue and they were doing what a CUC member is supposed to do. In some cases I could see how if you had an LPS that had already had tissue damage and they got on it to eat that - they could possibly damage the remaining healthy tissue too... But as far as clams go especially - I dont see it being your shrimp. Clams are way too strong... A healthy clam would close up on the shrimp and crush it!!!!!
Exactly.

Lysmata californica are atlantic and arent known to eat aptasia. :)
Do you mean AREN'T Atlantic? They're found of California thus the name.
 
#8
mikejrice;104760 said:
Do you mean AREN'T Atlantic? They're found of California thus the name.
Ops! ya.. so didnt mean they were .. corrected now LOL thankx Mike...

I scanned a page from one of my books for the cali type you DON'T want in ur tank - they will eat polyps, small and large stoneys - everything but aptasia (tho they may if they are hungry enough i would think since its still meat! lol) But arent known for it. These could be the ones that ate your acans up Shawn!

Pg 242 from "Marine Invertebrates: 500+ Essentail-to-know Aquarium Species" by Ronald L Shimek, Ph.D.
 

chrislorentz

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
Robert where did you get the peppermints from?
 

robert.talarico

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
Im almost 100% positive that my clam was NOT dead when/before the peppermint started to nip at it. I bought the peppermint from elite reef (which, by the way, is a great store). Like I said it ate all the aiptasia in my tank including some fairly large ones.
 

mikejrice

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#11
robert.talarico;104859 said:
Im almost 100% positive that my clam was NOT dead when/before the peppermint started to nip at it. I bought the peppermint from elite reef (which, by the way, is a great store). Like I said it ate all the aiptasia in my tank including some fairly large ones.
It can be near impossible to tell that a clam is actually dead. Their shells are sprung to be at rest in the open position, so usually they will die open and still looking good. It can be awhile before they noticeably begin to decay, but inverts can tell right away especially due to the fact that they stop closing when stimulated. I had a maxima die this week, and it looked great until I noticed hermits working on it.

That said, anything is possible when it comes to all of these animals, so you may just have a rogue clam muncher.
 
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