A couple more thoughts. Bristle worms are almost certainly innocent of causing clam death in most if not all cases .. but they will move in quickly to scavenge once a clam starts declining. Ie., they may deal the finishing blow (or just clean up after the fact) but they're not usually the first-strike.
Also, I see a LOT of clams on the sand bed in tanks. If you see clams in the wild it is only the sand specific species (Hippopus, derasa, maybe squamosa) out in the open like that. Maxima and crocea are almost always buried to the mantle in rock. These leaves their rather large byssal glands protected (which is a weakly defended point of entry). So maybe I should take back what I just said about bristle worms and for that matter, brittle stars and copepods and who knows what else, if they gain point of entry via the byssal gland, the clam can get irritated in my experience, a clam doesn't stay irritated for very long before its health is affected.
Also in my experience they are hugely sensitive to temperature swings.
It could just be rotten luck and coincidence since they are basically very sensitive to a lot of different things and then one thing just leads to another. It sucks.
I'm very curious how many clams make it past 5-6 years in captivity.
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-- Tony
My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
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