Hitchhiker on an astraea snail

[douglaslps]

This is something new to me. I've seem other hitchhikers on astraeas but nothing similar to this.
It reminds me of a tridacna clam, it even behaves like one, but I'm not 100% positive. It does not react to light, but when I touch it, it closes the clam. Believe me or not, but 3 of my astraeas have those clams attached to it. Actually one of the astraeas has 2 clams attached to it!

 

[ScottR]

Looks like a clam... what a score

 

[ScottR]

@DSC reef - any idea?

 

[DSC reef]

Looks like a hitchhiker bivalve

 

[sixty_reefer]

Maybe an oyster

 

[BloopFish]

Looks like an oyster. It reminds me of oysters in the genus Dendostrea. I'll attach a picture of a species in the genus for example (Dendostrea frons ). It is likely a Dendostrea frons, if it is a Dendostrea oyster, since they occur in the Caribbean where the majority of Astraea snails in the US hobby are collected.

 

[BloopFish]

Some more images of the frond oyster.

 

[ahiggins]

My guess was going to be clam or bivalve. I heard they don’t do well in “new” tanks but I had a hitchhiker on my rock and he’s still going strong at 4 months.

 

[douglaslps]

Awesome! Thanks guys. Hopefully it won't get much larger. A Google search indicated some Dendostrea frons bigger than an adult hand.