48 hours mystery...Aquarium style!

[rostato]

What is this?

Ok first a little background. I have had a hitchicker pistol shrimp in my tank for a while and I never saw it. Not once. I am 90% sure it was a pistol because I have had a Mantis for a little while, and the sound was totally different.

Anyway. This morning during my routine coffee fueled live stock inventory, and health check, I found this laying on the sand bed.

I pulled it out, and it looks to be in the shape of a shrimp of some sort, but it is HUGE! I think I would have found something this big. Especially since I am always in the tank moving stuff around.

Both my cleaners are alive and well. I had a sexy shrimop get killed by my wrasse last week, but it was a 4th of this size, and I watched the wrasse swallow it whole.

Is this my pistol shrimp now dead?

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[mapleredta]

Looks nothing like a pistol shrimp to me Chris

 

[mapleredta]

Mine looked like this....

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[rostato]

<span style="color: black">Yeah thats why I don't know if it is. The solid part of it is shaped like the body of a shrimp though. If you look closely you can see the </span><span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: Garamond"><span style="font-family: Verdana"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: black">resemblance.:unsure: </span></span></span> <span style="color: windowtext"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"></span></span></span></span>

Also, I have not heard it in a few days...

 

[derek_s]

That looks to me like a clam's foot...

Do you have any clams that have fallen over, or died? One of them may be missing his foot.

They usually regrow, I think.

 

[rostato]

Didnt think about that, but I do have a crocea clam sitting on an old shell, and it looks happy as ever... Early this week is was detaching itseld from its rock, so I had to move it over to a shell. It hasnt moved since. I just looked at it, and I cannot get a good look at it's foot. It's a posibility, but I dunno.

 

[mapleredta]

maybe some sort of slug?

 

[chemically_balanced]

My vote would be the clams foot also.

 

[rostato]

Hmm. When the clam jumpedoff its rock its foot was there, unless they can regorw them really fast. I got a small glimpse under the clam and it looks as though there is a foot.

 

[mapleredta]

rostato;277126 wrote: Hmm. When the clam jumpedoff its rock its foot was there, unless they can regorw them really fast. I got a small glimpse under the clam and it looks as though there is a foot.

Yeah he looked fine saturday morning when you put him back on the rocks, unless he jumped back off.:confused2:

 

[rostato]

Yeah that was the first jump. I went through 3 days worth of it jumping back off whatever rock I put it on. So I had to put it on an old shell. Hasnt moved since. Maybe it was its foot. Wierd though, because it was happy before and happy now..

 

[rostato]

Ok here are some pics I just took of the clam. You can see it's happy (and beautiful), and some of the foot is attached to the shell. The clam has only been on the shell for about 3 days now.

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[mapleredta]

rostato;277131 wrote: Yeah that was the first jump. I went through 3 days worth of it jumping back off whatever rock I put it on. So I had to put it on an old shell. Hasnt moved since. Maybe it was its foot. Wierd though, because it was happy before and happy now..

Hmmm hope he is alright, he's really pretty colored.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Well, its not the foot, but its defintiely the byssal threads. When a clam is unhappy, it detaches the byssal threads, and resecretes them at the new home. Its not injurious to them at all.

 

[rostato]

Hmm, so I guess that settles it. The clam shed its byssal threads. It makes sense to me. This is my first clam so I am still learning how they act. Thanks for the help as always!!!!

 

[rostato]

as an update, it was definatly the clam because I heard the pistol shrimp again last night.