Something ate my clam!!!

Alright im pretty mad right now! A friend and fellow reefer gave me a clam last night. I put it in the tank and it opend right up looked great bright blue color and was wowed it was about 4 inches. I went to work this am and just got in and its upside down on the bottom of the tank and the foot and insides had been eaten through the bottom. I have 2 six lines and 1 blue knuckled hermit is all I can think would have gone after it. The tangs woulent do this would they? All there is clowns tangs a blue spot goby and the six lines??? there are a ton of snails and the hermit but I cant think what was so hungry to kill my free clam?

 

Do you have any shrimps in there? Or bristleworms you don't know about? I watched my hermits and shrimps eat mine. But it was only a cleaner clam that surfaced.

 

There are bristle worms in the tank I dont know of a reef without them. I have never seen a large one but its in the middle of the day with the lights on so I would think its not the worms. you had a hermit eat yours? there are 2 cleaner shrimp in there but I cant imaging they are the culprit either.

 

Sorry to hear about your clam. Maybe he got stressed and the cleanup crew sensed he was weak / dying?

My clam went cliff -diving the other day. He re-attached to a rock lower down near the sand, no signs of damage to his mantle, hopefully nothing goes after him down there..

 

I can't imagine a bristleworm hunting it down...dead, yes them they would eat it, alive though.... There is such as thing as coral eating fireworms... not all that common but known to kill and eat clams.Six line if anything would help eat small predators of the clam... Could the tangs nip the mantle? Maybe, I have seen strange things... Purple tang that only ate green trachs?!How big is the blue knuckled crab?

 

The 6 lines would definitely only help by eating pyramellid snails. The crab, that might be a contender though, depending on its size. Tangs have been known to do strange things though.

 

I have had a bristle worm, in the middle of the day, go after a clam in which it eventually died from it. My call is bristle worm.

 

I agree with packleader - bristle worm

 

The blue knuckle crab is in a large mexican turbo shell so probally about the size of a quarter. I don know for a fact I have a fire worm in my tank although I have not seen it in along time probally about 6 months I know its there. I have never one time in my tank seen a bristle worm in the day its wierd because I know I have them. I am doing a test right now with the shell as there is still meat in it to see if the culprit comes back. I have seen the blue knuckle eat turbos and have been trying to eradicate it so I thought maybe this is it. I will keep eyes open for the worms to though.

 

Do you have a copper banded butterfly? A friend of mine had 5 clams and after about 9 months in his tank the butterfly went for his clams.