Clam died suddenly - things living on/in it?

I've had this Derasa for about 5 months now. He was doing absolutely fine until a week or so ago, when his mantle started to retract and he began gaping. I also noticed a hole in the mantle right above the hinge but below the mouth (it appeared that the mantle had actually separated from the shell in that area). I don't recall ever seeing a hole there, but maybe I just didn't look close enough...

I tested everything I could think of, including Copper (inverts don't like copper, right?)

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10ppm
Calcium - 640
dKH - 14
Phosphate - 0
Magnesium - 1200
Copper - 0

The only thing that looks out of whack to me are the Calcium and dKH (maybe the magnesium is a little low?) but from what I understand that shouldn't be a death sentence to a clam (especially that quickly).

Anyway, here's where I'm really confused. When I saw that the clam was no longer responding to light or touch I went ahead and removed him. Upon removal I started to examine, and noticed some odd growths on his shell. Amongst the countless snail eggs, there was one giant swirly tunnel thing (to be honest, it looks like a freshwater snail shell attached to the clam shell) with something living inside (again, looked like a snail). When I touched it it would retract just like a snail does. He was growing on the side that the clam had decided would face away from the front of the tank, so I never noticed it until I pulled him out.

When I turned the clam over, I noticed hundreds of tiny little shells coming out of the bottom. They appear to be coming out of that hole in the mantl I described earlier, near the hinge. I opened the clam and saw alot more of them inside. Could this be what killed him? What the hell are they? None of them appear to be alive as far as I can tell, but I have no idea how they got there.

Here's a few picture to clarify the description.

Swirly shell thing:





Tiny shells coming out of the clam:

 

Pyramid Snails. Sorry for loss.

Edit *
The tiny white snails are the pyramids. They are what killed your clam.

The swirly shells are probably that of some type of filter feeding duster.

 

Googled them, that's exactly it.

For future reference, is there any way to get rid of them? Will I need to clean them out of my tank before getting another clam? If I notice them on any future clams, how would/can I remove them?

Edit: also, nothing else in my tank appears to be unhappy (including snails). Is it safe to assume that this species effects only clams?

 

I've never dealt with them personally but if you google removal/treatment I'm sure you can find tons of info on what to do to get them out of your system.
There are natural predators but then you run into compatability issues.
Good luck! Keep us up to date on how it goes.

 

You, my friend, look to have a pyramid snail infestation. Pyramid snails will eat claims... looks like they are your culprit. Sorry (reefmonkey is faster than me )

Liveaquaria has a bit about them in their pests section here.

Unfortunately I haven't found anything really helpful that wouldn't eradicate your other snails as well.

 

Alright, I appreciate the help.

A google search shows that a Six-line wrasse might eat them. I've been looking for an excuse to get another fish, so I might give that a shot.

Still looking for removal information that doesn't involve scrubbing them off a living clam.

I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes.

Thanks again!

 

Sorry to hear about your loss. To my knowledge there is not a solution beyond manual removal. That said, IME if you are diligent about removal for a could of weeks it's too hard to get rid of them. I believe they feed exclusively on clams, so they generally don't the shell. I expect many wrasses would eat them, but the snails are very elusive and stay hidden under the clam during the day so I'm not sure how effective a wrasse would be.

 

You can put the clam up on a pedestal so to speak to prevent some snail from gathering. Bigger PVC pipe with clean/new sand works for this.

You will need to remove the eggs as well as the snails.

That is a pretty bad infection. In the wild pyramid snail have natural predators and their numbers are kept in check, not so in the aquarium. While I do discourage buying one creature to treat another creatures issues there have been some good results with wrasses like the canary. The problem is that the wrasse in diurnal and the snail nocturnal.

There are different types of pyramids and I have found with these types of infestations they will also become parasitic to large snails like turbos.

Good luck with the next clam ( I would wait a couple months before purchasing another), it's all about manual removal unfortunately with this pest.

 

The other creature is a vermitid snail. Harmless but can irritate animals with its feeding threads.