Swan Muscles

[Bazz]

Hi.
I have had 2 swan muscles for the last couple of months in the pond, 1 about 4" accross the other about 3".
Last time i checked them was about 2 weeks ago, both were partially open with some fleshy part sticking out and the shells were tight at the time so assumed both were ok.

Checked them today as you don't see a lot of movement from them and both shells were empty.
So i am assuming they have died but whats happened to the flesh ?
They were both quite big so i don't see the fish eating them. I have about 12 snails of various sizes but i cant see them having a high impact.
Decomposed ? how quick does this happen and what effect on the pond ?

Maybe they went on holiday, if so they in for a shock when they get back as i have removed the shells.
Have tried sifting through the sand and cant feel/see anything.

Any clues

 

[Honeythorn]

Well if you have a lot of fish in there it's entirely possible they could have been eaten. And if they were alive 2 weeks ago and you checked them today then that's plenty of time for them to have been munched.

 

[Bazz]

Hi
Have 4 fish, biggest being around 4", smallest being 3" (did have 6 but lost 1 to finrot 2 weeks ago and other to an ulcer 1 week ago).
Used a course of medifin for the finrot and rock salt for ulcer treatment, still working on the later building it up day by day.

Other than that everything else in pond is pretty normal chemical wise.
Maybe possible that the muscles die and the flesh floats to surface then picked on by birds but then i would of expected the shells to be open / i would of noticed sooner.

I honestly don't know what else could of happened

 

[Honeythorn]

It's possible certainly. If not birds then perhaps a cat? When we had a pond a cat kept coming and hooking the fish out and eating them . We couldn't figure out what was taking them until we caught it in the act