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jonbear

Killer Clam?

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ok the newst critters in my tank were a Derasa Clam and a yellow face sleeper goby. My tank is only two months old so still building up my cleaner crew. For two days the goby was doing an amazing job sifting sand and building his nest. last night as he was spraying his sand and he sprayed over the clam depositing sand into the clam. A bit later he decided to go clean up his mess and attempted dive into the clam and get the sand. FYi this clam is 6 inches wide, the clam snapped closed and just missed the very fast Goby.

Today i visit the tank and see a happy clam and rest of tank, the Goby no-wear in sight. Moments ago I find the goby head down in the rocks stone dead. no marks on him just dead. i pulled him from the tank and saw a slight breathing... put him back to the water and he was gone.

Because he was perfect yesterday and i have no predators in the tank is it possible the clam actually got him? after the initial incident i used a syringe and got the gravel out of clam. no sand was there tonight before or after finding the goby.

Has anyone else experienced this event. both were new to tank. just never thought about Clam being evil. I understand that at best he was defending but still.....was a beautiful fish.
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Updated 11-23-2010 at 09:58 PM by jonbear

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Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Sorry to hear about this, I don't have any experience with clams, but I love gobies and those are really beautiful fish. But they do tend to bury anything on the sandbed.
  2. melev's Avatar
    There is a good chance that goby got too close to the clam. Clams aren't aggressive by nature - they are defensive. I've watched clownfish host in them, amazingly. I've also seen a few fish perish after being clomped upon. Some even survive, with an obvious bend to their spine from that day forward.
  3. jonbear's Avatar
    well I want a goby in the thank but not sure i can expect a different result?
  4. melev's Avatar
    Unknown. I would think you could have both in your tank without the same result.
  5. jonbear's Avatar
    i moved the clam to the rockwork... at least it will be out of the sand bed/playground of a new goby.... waiting to see if clam likes the spot...