Bristle worms in my Derasa

[m8298]

I have a Derasa clam that I have kept for about 2.5-3 years now. It has been seemly healthy the whole time, until about a week ago. Over the last week it hasn't been opening as much, over the last couple days barely at all. Last night I was cleaning and needed to move it, and when my hand got close to it, it didn't hurry and close like usual. When I picked it up, the shell seemed almost loose. I started to inspect it, when I looked at the bottom there were bristle worms on the bottom and coming out of it. It appeared that they had eaten away the muscle tissue that connects the shell. I asked a guy at the LFS and he said that bristle worms do attack clams, and he couldn't understand why so many people like them.

So what do I do now? The tissue that connects the two halves of the shell is mostly gone. Is there a chance that the clam will still live? I haven't had any other problems with the bristle worms that I know of. Should I start trapping them, or get an Arrow Crab to eat them? This really bothers me, I try not to pick up the clam very often, now I wish I inspected it more often.

[gwen_o_lyn]

Sorry to hear about your clam :(

[fat walrus]

sorry to hear about your clam. i have tons of bristleworms, but no problems with my clams. perhaps, you clam had another problem and the bristleworms are just cleaning up dying tissue.

[fat walrus]

oh yes, arrow crabs do eat bristleworms.

[gwen_o_lyn]

My wrasse also loves bristleworms- I always see little bristles sticking out of his mouth.

[Rob]

while not all bristle worms are 100%safe, most of the one that we get in our tanks are totally harmless... so its possible that you have bad worms, but not that likely.
what happened more often is what Walrus stated, the clam is sick and/or dying for another reason and the bristle works are consuming the the dead tissues.

when you see this, you see a sick clam with a bunch of bristle worms in it.. its almost like, here the proof that they are eating it.. but in reality, they are just cleaning up after something else caused the clams health to decline. this is where bristle worms commonly get a bad rep.

like walrus and you stated, and i will restate, we have all had clams in our tanks for long periods of time, with no problems. if those bristle worms were going to eat your clam, they would have done it a long time ago.

[m8298]

I have also had them for a long time with no adverse affects. Maybe you're right and something else was wrong with the clam. Should I assume that the calm is beyond saving? It comes out somewhat, to feed.

That, and not to sound silly, but I don't want it to suffer.

[Rob]

well, while im fairly sure that the worms aren't causing the issue, im sure there not helping it...

if you can get it raised up on a egg create stand, or in another tank, that might help it.
i haven't had to nurse a clam back to health, but i would assume getting it feed well, lit well, and away from the worms that are probably irritating the heck out of it

for more info, check out the forums over at clamsdirect (http://www.clamsdirect.com/)

[m8298]

Well, I tried raising it on egg crate and feeding a bit more, no luck, it died last night :(

I believe you're right though, I have never had any problems at all with the worms, and I know they have been in there since I added the rock. The odd thing is the clam didn't look any different until I mentioned on this thread. That was my first clam, and I figure it out that I have had him three years. Seems like with such a sensative animal, that I would have seen something sooner, I kinda feel bad about it. I mean, I never pick it up unless I absolutely have to when cleaning the tank.

[fat walrus]

sorry to hear about the loss of the clam.

[m8298]

Thanks Walrus, I just hate the helpless feeling of not being able to fix it, and wishing I'd have seen something sooner.

[CarmieJo]

John,

Sorry to hear that you lost your clam.