1 oz of bristle worms under my clams (Picture)

[whatcaneyedo]

I was feeding my fish today and noticed that my large Squamosa clam's mantle was looking pinched while the Derasa and Maxima looked normal so I thought I'd investigate. When I lifted it up I disrupted a pretty large mass of bristle worms hiding out underneath. Most of which were the usual light pink with a little bit of grey but a few were completely grey and a bit fatter looking. Now I've always had worms in my tank but I've never worried too much about them. However I do occasionally pull out the really big ones when I see them simply because they gross me out. Well there were at least three pretty big ones (4-5") under the clam so I plucked them all out with some tweezers. The clams appearance changed immediately and is now fully extended they way it usually looks. I've had the Squamosa since last August and its put on two new layers nice white new shell/scutes since then. I regard it as being my healthiest as the other two were purchased much more recently and haven't yet added to their size.

I have no natural predators for bristle worms in my frag tank where I keep my clams but I'm thinking that I should get something just to control their numbers. In my display tank the butterfly fish eats them and so even though they are present they don't reach plague proportions like this. Or maybe I should just keep manually extracting them on occasion just to be safe.

Although the other two clams weren't showing any signs of irritation I cleaned out underneath them as well. Here is what I collected from all three: