Amphipods bothering a Clam

Hi,

I recently bought a small clam four my saltwater tank. The tank is about 2 months old and lots of little creatures are starting to emerge from the live rock.

I have been seeing a lot of amphipods crawling around the clam and climbing onto its mantle and the clam keeps retracting every time it gets touched. The clam has even blown at the amphipods to throw them off.

I've read a lot about amphipods being beneficial for the tank but they seem to be bothering the clam but not sure if they are a danger or harming the clam. The snails in the tank have crawled all over the clam cleaning and the clam doesn't even flinch.

There's also a blood shrimp and a pair of clown fish in the tank if that matters.

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

 

Welcome to 3reef Jross.

Amphipods are usually harmless but there are reports of a larger variety eating or bothering large stony polyps and or zoanthids.

Typically they eat dead or decaying tissue, so there attraction to any live stock is concerning.

What type of clam?
What types of fish do you have, perhaps the population is not being controlled by fish sufficiently.

Interceptor used to treat Red Bugs on acropora is an effective treatment but it kills shrimp and crabs just as efficiently.

 

I thought it was best to add clams into a mature tank, around 1 year old? More curious than anything.

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back on this.

When I originally bought the clam the staff suggested that the tank was safe to add the clam to it.

I'm not sure the exact species of the clam so I have attached a few images of the clam with some of the amphipods near that have been in question.

The tank only has 2 Clown Fish, 1 Blood Shrimp, and 4 Snails. The tank is about 3 months old now.

At the moment I have moved the Clam form the live rock that it was on and put it on the live sand where there are less amphipods crawling... for the moment.

 

It is a Crocea.

Unfortunately the mantle is beginning to pull away, it could be Pinched Mantle Disease, very common with Crocea.

Crocea are light loving rock boring clams in the wild.

This one looks compromised and the Amphipod may just be drawn to it because of it's poor health.

Where did you get the clam?

There is not an intervention I can think of at this time to assist the clam. Typically Crocea do best up high in the rockwork in a stable area where it can not fall.

 

i have to wonder what your lighting is. clams need high light and will fail with even 150 watt halide. and when it fails other creatures will go in to eat it.

 

The mantle was retracted just recently because I've been seeing amphipods crawling at that area but it does expand once it leaves.

I've attached a picture of it last night, in night lighting unfortunately, and another now that I have it on the sand where it's been peaceful and started to open up more.

The clam I bought at a local aquarium store which has generally been well received.

The clam was originally on the top of our rock formation yet the amphipods were very abundant on that rock and crawled over the clam often causing it to retract the mantle every time. I placed it on one of the side rocks where it wasn't bothered much, until recently, but also had the issue that it would move around and has fallen off the rock once already. I can 'prop' it up with another stone around it when it's on the rock but that still has the issue of amphipods.

The clown fish are always in one corner so they don't help with controlling the amphipod population and I'm not sure what I should get that would help control them or if I should even.

Really appreciate your help.

 

If worst comes to worse and you see the Amphipods going after Zoanthids and LPS, you can treat with Interceptor, if you can find it. It has a high likely hood killing all hermits/crabs and shrimp though.

 

Okay, so feel embarrassed at this point... I only have a 40W Marineland Hidden LED light fixture only. This was something I talked to the retailer about and he said to keep it near the top of the tank and it would be fine.

 

What about something other than chemical additives that would prey on the amphipods to help control the population?