What a difference 2 days made!

[Jasonb]

So I went out of town this weekend, left Friday. I decided to do a lights out while I was gone to help my CUC with some algea. Came back home tonight turned the lights on so I could feed. Found my derasa clam that I had for a month gone! But found my black ice clown hosting my tequila sunrise anemone! Along with multiple corals moved that I have epoxied down yet.

The clam was healthy when I got it and before I left, great color, mouth closed, always open etc. Any ideas?

[Zack]

What kinds of creatures make up your cuc? Also what's your full stock list?

[Jasonb]

Asterea snails, hermits, emerald crab

Yellow tang
Starry blenny
2 blue chromis
Black ice clown
Blue sides wrasse
Yellow fin fairy wrasse
Melanurus wrasse
Purple fire fish

Multiple sps, LPS and softies

2-165w LEDs (output is probably more like 120w max

Blues are running max and whites running 60% maybe (normally)

[Zack]

Any signs of pyramid snails?

Heres a link I have bookmarked on the subject

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/3/aafeature1

[Jasonb]

Not that I have seen I have checked a few times since I got it...but not ruling that out.

Just odd that it was in good health and happy 2 days ago. Wouldn't have thought 2 days of no lights would have killed it.

[Mike]

I wouldn't think any of your fish would eat it. When you say gone, is it just not there or just an empty shell?

[Jasonb]

Sorry mike, it's just an empty shell

[Mike]

If it died on its own, your CUC did a bang up job. Seems odd to go from being alive and healthy to dead and gone in 2 days. Any other mysterious dissapearences lately/ in the past. Added any new live rock? Thinking hitchhiker crab or mantis? You never saw anything picking at it/on it previously? Are your wrasses of the fairy type? Could they be the fish only type? Weird. Sorry not more help.

[Jasonb]

If it died on its own, your CUC did a bang up job. Seems odd to go from being alive and healthy to dead and gone in 2 days. Any other mysterious dissapearences lately/ in the past. Added any new live rock? Thinking hitchhiker crab or mantis? You never saw anything picking at it/on it previously? Are your wrasses of the fairy type? Could they be the fish only type? Weird. Sorry not more help.

Never saw anything picking at it, was always fully open.
All the live rock was added before the clam, I use a red light at night every once in a while no out of the ordinary HH( just bristle worms, brittle stars, spaghetti worms ETc.
None of the wrasses have bothered it. They are all reef safe and the melanurus is new but other 2 have been with me for almost a year maybe.

Would 2 days of no lights have that much affect on a clam?

[Mike]

I wouldn't think so. The tank would still get ambient light from the room, unless you covered it. You would think in nature they have to get cloudy/dark days. Seems awfully fast.

[Zack]

I agree with Mike. It'd have to be a larger predator to get rid of it that quickly

[Zack]

Maybe try a fish trap with some fresh shrimp or fresh clam to see if you can catch the culprit?

[Justin]

Check to make sure you don't have polyclad worms. They are a planarian worms that are just a bigger version of a flat worm. They can mask themselves to look like the mantle of a clam. At night they usually come out to feed and hide under the clams mantle during the day. Tonight, get a little plastic jar (like the old school photo film kind) and put some fresh clams from HEB in the tank. Be sure to cut slits about a 1/16th to an 1/8th large for the worm to squeeze in but nothing else. Check in the morning if you caught anything. You'll probably catch a couple of bristle worms but if you have the worms, they will be there.

Also, some CUC can make some really short work of dead tissue. I lost a 2.5 inch clam overnight and there was no flesh left at all. The poor clam was way too young and I had an urchin that was constantly moving it and making it fall of my rock work into the sand. The poor thing decided to go to the big Menudo bowl in the sky and the next day I had a nice and clean shell for my blennies to hang out in.

[Richard]

Are you sure your melanurus is actually a melanurus? A number of non reef safe juvi wrasses look very similar.

[Jasonb]

Are you sure your melanurus is actually a melanurus? A number of non reef safe juvi wrasses look very similar.

Yes it's a large male.