# Freshwater clams for GW?



## morinfen (Dec 17, 2004)

Would this work? I know sometimes people buy daphnia when they have GW and they help clear it up, so if i bought say, 5 freshwater clams and put them in my 29 gallon they would help my sandy substrate (kinda like worms) and also would probably filter out the algae... is this right? It sounds like a cheap diatom filter to me . Comments please .

Hmm... what about a tank where all the inhabitants play a part of ridding of algae... like amano shrimp, cherry shrimp, ottos, and SAEs and then put in some freshwater clams and vampire shrimp for GW.... 

Just doin a bit of thinking!
-Nater roud:


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Not sure how many you would need to impact water quality. Five in a 29 gal doesn't sound like they will put a dent into greenwater. They don't do much for your substrate, just dig in, open up, and sit there and filter until some fish disturbs them. I started pulling mine out just for kicks, looks interesting to see them dig into the sand.

On the other hand, I had a little problem with microscopic critters in my 10 gal tank, and a bamboo shrimp filtered them all out!


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## Laith (Jul 7, 2004)

I posted this on your thread in the Swap n Shop:

Just a quick note. I remember someone who bought FW clams, mainly thinking that they would help "filter" his water.

They died one by one but since its difficult to tell, he didn't realize. So the meat slowly rotted in their shells. I'll leave the rest of the disaster to your imagination..

So just make sure you know how to tell whether they're alive or not...


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I got 5 FWC, but I've never had GW. They might help a little but I think it would be streching it to say they would make it go away. Mine will peak barely out of the substrate and feed (breathe) for a couple of weeks and then disappear for a couple of weeks.


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

zebra mussels apparently work well in removing green water, the kicker is that you need a chiller because they can't handle even moderately warm temperatures.


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

I just bought some asian clams and a UV sterilizer. My money is on the UV sterilizer. I just can't see how 10 1/2 to 1" clams are going to have an impact on the water column. Haven't had a GW outbreak for years until recently, but then again I went from 20W of NO lighting to a 130W PC.


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## scolley (Apr 4, 2004)

3 FW clams did not put a dent in the GW problem in my 20g, though they did look happy - sticking out of the substate and sucking it down, 24 x 7.


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## sparkysko (Jun 11, 2004)

We collected about 30 asian clams and threw them into our 20 gallon. Water was still green until about a month later. I had been struggling with green water for 5 months prior..

If they did have an impact on it, it wasn't noticable. As the water went from green to hazy to clear within 3 days...

If you have a local source to gather some clams, go for it, otherwise, I wouldn't bother.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

BiscuitSlayer said:


> I just bought some asian clams and a UV sterilizer.


Hmmmm this is not a good combination... :wink:


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

Wasserpest said:


> Hmmmm this is not a good combination... :wink:



Ya know... I was just thinking about that when I saw your reply. I bought about 20 asian clams and then I bought a UV sterilizer. I just received the UV sterilizer today, but I haven't received the clams yet. I think I am going to wait and see if the clams can actually make an impact on the GW issue before I fire up the UV sterilizer. Then we can actually put this tread to the test!


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## BiscuitSlayer (Apr 1, 2005)

My latest GW outbreak came because I increased the feedings to 2 times per day. The GW started to show up in about a week. I did this to try to keep some of the fish that I have from eating all of my glosso. So I know what the cause is (i'm not that much of a newb).


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## vwboy53 (Mar 31, 2005)

I had a freshwater mussel and it seemed to filter microscopic particles out of my water. It survived for about one year (though It was pretty old when i got it). I heard that they can be a sort of paracite, in that "baby" mussels attach to the sides of fish for a period to grow, but the fish constantly scrap their bodies to try and get it off.

All in all, I liked my mussel, it cleaned the water but was an interesting feature, particularly when it constaintly changed it's position every day :b


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## heaven2 (Jan 9, 2003)

TINNGG said:


> zebra mussels apparently work well in removing green water, the kicker is that you need a chiller because they can't handle even moderately warm temperatures.


Zebra mussels are seriously bad news.

They are non-native, highly invasive and are wreaking havoc in the water systems where they have been accidentally introduced.

They proliferate very quickly, outcompete native North American bivalves, block water lines and foul boat hulls. Moreover, by removing most of the food for microscopic zooplankton and filter feeders (which in turn support larval and juvenile fishes and other animals) zebra mussels can effectively starve native populations.

They can be accidentally transfered from lake to lake by hitching a ride on the hull of a boat or via water transfer. If they or their larvae are flushed into a sewer system that is linked to stormwater sewer drains that feed into lakes or rivers, the mussels could become resident in these waters.

No aquarist should even consider culturing this species.


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

I was going to say something to the degree that Heaven2 just said. I read in TFH that even having zebra mussels in your tanks is potentially harmful, since they are prolific and their eggs/larvae tend to float around in the water column. When you cycle your tanks, you are flushing them into the sewers and potentially your local waterways. While zebra mussels seem to be very effective at GW removal according to an experiment done in TFH, they are even more effective at damaging or killing the local fish and clams.
-Aphyosemion


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Death to zebra mussels!

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## SCMurphy (Oct 21, 2003)

*Don't transport zebra mussels!!!!*

It's against the law to transport zebra mussels in every state I can think of.

DON'T transport zebra mussels. DON'T take them home for your tanks. 

Put the zebra mussel down on the bank where it will die and back away from the zebra mussel.

:angryfire Don't make me repeat this!


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