amphipods eating clam ?

[daniella3d]

I know this may sound wierd, but I took a flashlight and looked at my clams as one of them seem to have chew marks on the edges. I saw quite a few amphipods on the side of the mantle that looked like they were chewing on the clam mantle. The mantle was retracting and twitching where the amphipods were chewing as if it was hurting.

Since I sold my copperband I have them popping all over the place at night and they have already eaten a full colonie of paly. If they start to attack my clams then I don,t know what to do.

Put some sort of trap for them? Any body tried some trap for them? I want them dead. Please don,t suggest wrasses, as they are sound asleep while the amphipods roam all over the place at night.

For those who think these little bastards are harmless...here is a video showing some feeding on clam mantle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QpymcqxvGI

[duncangweller]

thats a cool vid. I always see these little critters all over my SPS. my tank has been fallow for nearly 10 weeks because of ich so they are multiplying at an alarming rate. My fish wont know what to do with themselves when i drop them back in.

Although you have already stated that a wrasse may be sleeping at night when they are out and about, it will still help control populations during the day, lessening the numbers and likely decreasing the occurrences when this happens.

just a thought.

Dunc

[Proteus]

I believe some shrimp eat pods

Since adding bloods and peppermint shrimp my pod population has greatly been reduced

[jorjef]

Maybe a small Banggai Cardinal would hunt them down at night...I had a clam that was harassed the same way.

[phi delt reefer]

last night I had an issue with pods eating two heads of a new paly frag i got. Some extensive googling led me to believe something else was killing the palys and the pods were just consuming the dead tissue. I pulled the palys out and noticed some giant red flat worm"-ish" things latched onto the two remaining heads.

They survived a REVIVE and fresh water dip so i yanked em off with some tweezers and there some vicious bite marks were they were sitting on the palys.

long story short... I wonder if your clam or palys were on their way out. Though you didnt state anything along those lines so I'll assume no. A yellow coris wrasse ($10) will decimate any type of pod. I believe they come in green too. Maybe put an eggcrate box around the clam with the wrasse in it so he concentrates on that area?

[lastlight]

Peppermints are active at night and they will devour any pods they find. They probably eat clams too for all I know. Damn this hobby!

[91Atrac]

WHAT! I didn't know peppermints would eat pods at night. Glad I don't have one then :)

[lastlight]

oh i have no proof they do at night but i see them snack on them during the day so chances are good since the pods all come out to play when the lights go out.

[91Atrac]

Sounds logical. Still I never saw them eating em but never really watched mine when I had him.

[daniella3d]

All my clams are perfectly healthy. I have one for 3 years already.

They have to be very healthy to recover from such nocturnal attacks.

They do recover, but I can see the bite marks on the edges of the clams mantle. I was seing this type of dammage and was wondering where it was coming from since I don't have any fish that are picking at them. Got my answer when watching at night a bunch of those amphipods chewing on the clam. If is very easy to see what they are doing, you can actually see them bite the mantle with their little mouth.

And spare me the lines "clams is probably sick and why the pods are after it" because they are super healthy. Well extended during the day, no gaping, no pinched mantle, great colors.

an eggcrate box? are you suggesting that I trap a wrass along with the clams? not sure what you are saying here but anyway there is no way to put a eggcrate in there because the clams are on a plate in midlevel.

Like I said, all the wrasses, any type that I know of, are sound asleep and burrow in the sand at night, while the amphipods are out having fun. now what? I used to have a checkerboard wrasse and he was eating them yeah...but I had to lift rocks for him to catch them otherwise he would be sleeping at night and the pods were safe during the day, hiding.

I have to mention that I have totoka liverock in my tank. There are tons and tons of places where amphipods can hide in there. It's not a smooth rock but very porous with tons of holes to hide in. I even checked today and saw a few amphipods hiding in the shell asperity of my maxima clam :(



long story short... I wonder if your clam or palys were on their way out. Though you didnt state anything along those lines so I'll assume no. A yellow coris wrasse ($10) will decimate any type of pod. I believe they come in green too. Maybe put an eggcrate box around the clam with the wrasse in it so he concentrates on that area?

[daniella3d]

I heard about peppermint eating pods, not sure if they eat the large ones? You think peppermint will eat clams?

I surely don't want to replace a problem with another problem.

Peppermints are active at night and they will devour any pods they find. They probably eat clams too for all I know. Damn this hobby!

[lastlight]

I heard about peppermint eating pods, not sure if they eat the large ones? You think peppermint will eat clams?

I surely don't want to replace a problem with another problem.

I've got no clams I can't help you there. I'm pretty sure there's been a case of everything we keep trying to eat everything else in someone's tank at some point. I'm sure I read about peppermints eating zoas etc. Mine appear to be behaved...

[Proteus]

I keep clams and never had problem with any shrimp. Bloods, peps etc

My blood will sit atop the clams when feeding time

[91Atrac]

I've found pods crawling and hiding under my maxi mini nem if this matters

[asylumdown]

I never realized this could be a problem, there's millions of those guys in my tank, though in all fairness I haven't looked closely at my clam in about 3 months.

The only fish that I know of that actively hunts these critters at night is a copper band, would you ever consider getting another? Why did you let go of the first one? Mine never stops hunting and I still have a noticeable population of them though, so even with a Copper Band you're not going to eradicate them, just reduce their numbers.

[TimT]

FME peppermints wont bother clams.

I would suspect there are lots of different species of amphipods, each with their own dietary preferences. Animals tend to prefer the easiest sources of food. Perhaps feeding meaty foods would distract the pods from the clams by providing an easier source of food. Then if you added a pod predator to reduce their population density during the day it might solve the problem.

You said that the problem started after you lost the copperband so it must have been keeping the pod population in check during the day.

If you don't want to go the wrasse method you could always try an Orchid Dottyback, Mandarin Goby, Rainford's or Hectors Goby etc.

[daniella3d]

Problem is, I just got rid of a copperband that I had for 2 years because he started nipping at my clams. So I won't get another one no as it was very hard decision to sell him after 2 years.

But yes he did a great job at keeping those pests at bay.

Copperband don't sleep and hunt all night long, so yes he was hunting them while they were out at night and I could bearely see any of them day or night. Since the copperband has left, about 2 months now, they are thrive.

Orchids dottyback are the nastiest little bastard I have ever owned. Never ever again, plus they sleep at night. I have two mandarins in the tank and they sleep at night, plus they don't eat those big amphipods, only copepods. all wrasses do as well.


I never realized this could be a problem, there's millions of those guys in my tank, though in all fairness I haven't looked closely at my clam in about 3 months.

The only fish that I know of that actively hunts these critters at night is a copper band, would you ever consider getting another? Why did you let go of the first one? Mine never stops hunting and I still have a noticeable population of them though, so even with a Copper Band you're not going to eradicate them, just reduce their numbers.