worm eating clams

Hi i would like to ask if you ever hear for a worm not snails eating clams; yesterday 2 of my friends clams past away and they were big ones . He found a worm insite them . Any idea;

Flatworms will eat clams, but I am wondering if what your friends had were fireworms?

Chris has a pic of the flatworm that eats clams, I am sure he can post it up so you can see what it is. It is just a brown or tan large flat worm and they work fast on killing clams.

Oh no...that sucks...probably is the flatworms skinz mentioned

If it was fire worms or bristle worms they were probably just doing some clean up after the clam died from other reasons. They aren't known to kill clams.

Also normal bristle won't eat them if there alive but if something happened to the clams and they died they will start to eat dead flesh.

very true about the bristle worms...they came out and started munching on our clams ONLY after the clam was on it's death bed ... never bothered them when they're healthy.

There's another type of burrowing worm (I think it's a worm) that can kill bivalves by boring through their shell, not that that's what this is, I'm just sayin'.

Originally Posted by spinycheek

There's another type of burrowing worm (I think it's a worm) that can kill bivalves by boring through their shell, not that that's what this is, I'm just sayin'.

I thing it was this kind of worm . My friend has a total of 16 clams plus 2 they die.From 3 to 12 inches the larger maximas ,squamosa, and derasa and he was keeping them for 2 years without lossing ever one until now.

IMO they died from something else, not the worms. If your friend has been keeping clams for over 2 years and he had a predatory worm in his tank he would have started loosing clams a long time ago.

There is a chance that a predatory worm was just brought into the tank if your friend has just gotten new rock or corals.

Oenone are nocturnal predators on snails and clams, and perhaps some other animals. They appear to extend from their burrow, and as they approach their prey they apparently secrete some mucus that covers the prey. This mucus may simply smother the prey, or it may contain some venom or narcotizing agent. After the prey is immobilized the worm extends a proboscis from the bottom of the head into the mucus and the jaws grasp the body of the prey. The jaws may also cut the attachments of the body to any shells, or alternatively the mucus may contain an agent that chemically severs the attachment. In any case, the prey's body is ingested. When the aquarist investigates the scene the next morning, all that typically remains is an empty snail or clam shell covered in a blob of mucus. Not many other predatory animals in marine aquaria typically leave behind such remains, consequently a dead, empty, shell covered with mucus is considered to be good evidence of the presence of an Oenone.


Oenone fulgida are not too hard to remove from a system, but it takes diligence. They most often live in burrows in rock, and enter aquaria in uncured rocks, and being nocturnal, the hobbyist has to search for them in the middle of the night. Using a red flashlight is best, as they will rapidly withdraw in the beam of a normal flashlight. They will appear as long worms stretched out and over the rocks. Once an Oenone individual is presumed to be living in a tank, the hobbyist must watch it withdraw in order to see where its burrow is found. After the rock with the burrow is located, the rock must be removed and the animal flushed from its burrow using a flood of carbonated water (soda pop works well). The worm is then discarded, and the rock replaced in the aquarium

Originally Posted by chris&barb

IMO they died from something else, not the worms. If your friend has been keeping clams for over 2 years and he had a predatory worm in his tank he would have started loosing clams a long time ago.

There is a chance that a predatory worm was just brought into the tank if your friend has just gotten new rock or corals.

Actually chris is my friend who owns the LFS and those clams are in his show tank but he make big mistake because every new clam that he import he but it in his show tank because his system is very stable so i guess he introduced somthing predatory in the tank cause he dont have a guaranty tank.

Originally Posted by D3monic

Oenone are nocturnal predators on snails and clams, and perhaps some other animals. They appear to extend from their burrow, and as they approach their prey they apparently secrete some mucus that covers the prey. This mucus may simply smother the prey, or it may contain some venom or narcotizing agent. After the prey is immobilized the worm extends a proboscis from the bottom of the head into the mucus and the jaws grasp the body of the prey. The jaws may also cut the attachments of the body to any shells, or alternatively the mucus may contain an agent that chemically severs the attachment. In any case, the prey's body is ingested. When the aquarist investigates the scene the next morning, all that typically remains is an empty snail or clam shell covered in a blob of mucus. Not many other predatory animals in marine aquaria typically leave behind such remains, consequently a dead, empty, shell covered with mucus is considered to be good evidence of the presence of an Oenone.


Oenone fulgida are not too hard to remove from a system, but it takes diligence. They most often live in burrows in rock, and enter aquaria in uncured rocks, and being nocturnal, the hobbyist has to search for them in the middle of the night. Using a red flashlight is best, as they will rapidly withdraw in the beam of a normal flashlight. They will appear as long worms stretched out and over the rocks. Once an Oenone individual is presumed to be living in a tank, the hobbyist must watch it withdraw in order to see where its burrow is found. After the rock with the burrow is located, the rock must be removed and the animal flushed from its burrow using a flood of carbonated water (soda pop works well). The worm is then discarded, and the rock replaced in the aquarium

It was very helpful thanks Monic

D: ewwwww and also very scary thought that these "things" can be in our tanks and can cause that kind of damage! but also great for us all to know about too....hmmmm...I might be up all night tonight with my red flashlight making sure we don't have any of them! .... well actually don't need to worry I guess since we'll be getting rid of all live rock....but still good to know!

this is the worst flatworm that kills clam I killed about 10 of them in some live rock I bought a while back I was sure glad I put it in rubbermaids and ran it in the garage in the cold for a while.

ahhhhh ... kills clams!!! NOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo well thank goodness you got rid of it! any more problems you've seen?

How is everything going KY ? is all good now mate

The fireworms can irritate a clam alot. I saw a reefer on my local that was having issues with his clams, and it turned out to be fireworms. After the fireworm was removed, he issues with the clam went away. I found the thread, so here's a link, you may have to register to see this, I'm not sure, but it's worth a look. This was a nice system.

Reefing The Australian Way Forums :: View topic - Fred's SPS Tank [Winner TOTM Oct05]

I hate the things personally, when they get to a length of 3" or so, I'll try to remove them from my tank. I had one that killed off my Goniopora, and after that, I've been really deternined to remove them. My Goni was doing well until this incident, the effect was immediate, it never recovered. It was closer to 6" though, and after seeing it in action, it soon changed my mind about what they can do. They have a toxin in there bristles, which is primarily a defensive measure, but they can sting just by touch. Considering the amount of bristles they have, when they get big, and the fact that they can move around quite fast, they can inflict some serious damage.

I had to remove a couple because they kept stealing food from my anemones. Took me a while 'til I noticed, the anemones were pretty pissed.

Around five clams are deat. We found out what causes that to my friends aquarium .It was a compinations of pyramit snails and then the fireworms where having a party on the weak clams.

Bugga, but at least you've found the problems. Hope the rest are ok.