# Freshwater Clam ?



## andy1_52

So I am considering putting a freshwater clam or two in my aquarium as I have read that they can greatly improve water clarity...

I have also read that despite their benefits they typically die in about 3 months thus causing a potential waste disaster. Can and or is there such a clam that can have any sort of longevity in a planted aquarium setting?

Here are two sites that I found on the internet and one of em says that the clams should be able to live about a year the other isn't specific.
http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/misc_critters/critters.htm#top2
http://www.azgardens.com/aquarium_snails.php

I am looking for someone on the forum that has first hand experience in this area!


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## spypet

people don't get clams to clear their water.
they need debris and water flow to survive.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/g...ussion/22241-turbo-snail-freshwater-clam.html


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## andy1_52

I found here that this lady said she put freshwater clams in her water to clear it up..


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## spypet

I can get a goat to mow my lawn, but then what...
if your water is cloudy add some polishing media to
your canister filter and rinse it more often.


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## andy1_52

lol that's awesome I didn't really think about it like that!! I'll just get some polishing media for my FX5. Any online sources you'd recommend?


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## spypet

cut a few pads of this stuff and layer it to fit flat into the last stage basket of your canister filter. then every time you do a water change, shake rinse these pads really well and put them back in place. these pads then need to be replaced with new ones you'll cut up again every few Months.


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## A Hill

FW clams are cool but after a while you need to keep them fed. I had most of mine die while I was away for a week because they didn't have anything to eat. So at the moment I only have one Asian clam. Really neat though.

So They're fine for some people and bad for others.

As for that other member with the clams, we discussed them for a few days via PM before she went out to get some. She got them for the right reasons don't worry.

-Andrew


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## Galactic Doug

Something else you can do is to feed the clams/muscles on marine invertabrate food by Kent Marine or other. Just use a pipette or silicone a turkey baster with a section of 3/16" stiff tubing into the open end so that you can feed them from above the water line. 
Mix the Invert food into some water say about 1-2 cups then use the device you choose to siphon it all up and squirt it close to the clam when they are open. 

This will keep them alive for up to about three years or so. I have used this before with the Corbicual species and had good results.

Good luck!


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## CampCreekTexas

For anyone else who was wondering about clams ~ That's me that PMed with FishNewb and talked about them on my journal thread ("My First Scape"). I happen to like the clams a lot! Nifty little things, though rather boring if you like a lot of "livliness" in your tank. I don't see them doing much of anything at all, but it's kind of neat to look down in the tank and see their "mouths" open, knowing they're keeping things clean. Call me mean, but sometimes I dig them out and put them back on top of the sand just to watch my betta freak out from curiosity over them as they dig back down. *snicker* 

I did ask FishNewb about them at length and read a lot online. They'll definitely clear up green water/substrate dust and do it _quick_, but then you'll have to feed them. I keep mine in little clay pots with sand or Soilmaster in them and move them around, pot and all, to different tanks to keep them free of GW, and also bring in gallons of GW from my goldfish ponds to give them. 

After reading everything I have and listening to what FN had to say about them, I don't think I'd let them loose in a planted tank. They burrow down into the substrate and can be _really_ hard to find if they move from where you last saw them, so if one were to die you'd have to dig around in the top inch of the substrate 'til you find it. That doesn't sound like much fun in a planted tank to me, so I'll just keep them in the pots where I know where they are.


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## andy1_52

I think I might get one if I were to ever find it in an LFS however I don't think I want to buy one online yet simply because I am on the road to beating my green water problems.

Also I have MTS in my tank how will those react to the clams?


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## mistergreen

there are other ways to beat green water ya know.


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## boink

CampCreekTexas said:


> They burrow down into the substrate and can be _really_ hard to find if they move from where you last saw them, so if one were to die you'd have to dig around in the top inch of the substrate 'til you find it.
> 
> Silicon a mini ball and chain on them...


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## Galactic Doug

Thin gravel layers work pretty good also. I am a firm believer that most people put waaaay to much soil and gravel into their tanks anyways. So if the gravel is thinner the clams don't have enough to hide in or just barely enough to get mostly covered they will be visible all the time...
Of course if your using large plants such as Echinodorus types they need more depth for perfect root growth. Ahhh choices...

As for the snails, I have never kept them in a planted tank so I can't say how they would react to the clams, to me most snails just eat plants or uproot them, so out they stay...


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## CampCreekTexas

andy1_52 said:


> I think I might get one if I were to ever find it in an LFS however I don't think I want to buy one online yet simply because I am on the road to beating my green water problems.


 Congrats! Then I wouldn't get one, especially if you don't want to add more work to your list. Right now it's raining cats and dogs, but I have to run outside to get some more GW for my clams. A bit of a pita, but I gotta' do it (and I really don't mind it that much  ). I think I will atleast wait 'til a break in the rain though. 



> Also I have MTS in my tank how will those react to the clams?


No idea. I only have one MTS and haven't had it long.



mistergreen said:


> there are other ways to beat green water ya know.


 Yup, and apparently Andy's figured that out. But for me, I kind of like the idea of "Invisible Maids". *snicker*



boink said:


> Silicon a mini ball and chain on them...














Galactic Doug said:


> Thin gravel layers work pretty good also. ... the clams don't have enough to hide in or just barely enough to get mostly covered they will be visible all the time...


 That's an interesting idea. It'd be nice to see more of them more often. Hmmmm ... I'll bet I can do a thin layer of substrate in a moss tank I've got in the plans. I wasn't sure what I was going to put on the floor of that tank, so maybe I'll just pick something that's shallow-rooted, like glosso or HC (though the moss might take over with the high light, ferts and CO2). Or maybe I'll leave out carpet plants so I can see the snails better. If I think I need more plants in there in the "body" of the tank, I can always use anubias and java ferns. Neat idea ~ thanks, Doug!


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## cody6766

what about clams in an over-fed tank? 

I tend to over feed my south american tank so my earth eaters can sift through the sand and my 2 cat fish have something to eat. I feed flake. Will this over feeding provide enough food for some clams? The peices would be bigger than, say green water, but there would be plenty of stuff blowing around the top of the sand a couple times a day. I normally feed twice daily and do weekly 30% water changes.


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## CampCreekTexas

I haven't had these long, Cody, so I really don't know. I'd like to hear about that, too, if anyone else knows.


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## Galactic Doug

cody6766 said:


> what about clams in an over-fed tank?


The reason's for not doing this:

Feeding clams and other mollusc creatures that need calcium and other nutrients to keep their shells in good shape and to just plain live will get soft shells that fall apart. Hence the reason I used invert food it has nutri's in it that seemed to work very well for my clams. (They are FILTER FEEDERS)
You could always add the required nutri's via a dosing system or something and just hope that the food you are give everything else has enough "Contact" with the clams. (liquids mix well with water and when squirted next to the clams work extremely well).

The earth eaters might like to pick at the clams to often and cause them to die due to lack of feeding. (they need to be open to do this)

Beyond that, feeding clams are pretty hardy creature with a short lifespan of about 3-4 years. FME


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## kkentert

My 55 gallon has 1 canister running all biological, and 1 canister with nothing but filter floss. I've never had water as clear as it has been sincwe adding filter floss! Best mechanical media ever. (and I get stuffing from walmart for pillows - same thing! REAL cheap)
I had one freshwater clam- they're a bit less than exciting.


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## Galactic Doug

kkentert said:


> I had one freshwater clam- they're a bit less than exciting.


Clams aren't supposed to "Excite" you. They are there for the purpose of cleaning the water in a natural method. Excitement is what the fish and shrimps are for, and of course you can clean the tank with a filter and consistantly replace the medium for money. Personally I like the natural methods when possible.

Most clams have some pretty colors on their shells as seen below for those who wish to add color.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1642


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## p3purr

I was reading about clams and I came up with this page:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I2/golden_clams/golden_clams.htm

The info made sense to me. 

Patricia


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## Galactic Doug

p3purr said:


> I was reading about clams and I came up with this page:
> http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I2/golden_clams/golden_clams.htm
> 
> The info made sense to me.
> 
> Patricia


Thats a good page for basic info, and yes I could have been misunderstood with the "FILTER" idea I deffinitely would not remove a normal filter from the tank and replace it with clams, the type of filtering I was identifying with the clams is in the removal of Green Water and smallish detritus that floats around most tanks. The filter mentioned by kkentert will work for normal bio load removal and the clams would simply polish the water column itself.

Good catch Patricia!


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## CampCreekTexas

Can anybody tell me just what in the world this report is trying to say? Corbicula fluminea as a Factor Affecting Nutrient Cycling in the Chowan River, N.C. For some reason, I'm brain farting on whether it's saying the clams are good in that they take out ammonium or that they're bad because they add it.:iamwithst


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## Galactic Doug

In the first paragraph it says the below.

"Elsewhere, benthic invertebrates have been shown to be important factors in nutrient cycling, both indirectly, through burrowing and sediment reworking, and directly, through excretion." 


I would cease to go further and take it that it means they remove stuff from the water...


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## CampCreekTexas

That's what I was thinking it meant, but I wasn't sure by any means. 

Well, then that throws the article on WetWebMedia.com into question since, regarding the clams reducing nitrate, that guy says,


> This one is simply not true, no matter what angle you would like to look at it.


 Well, NCState University says they *do* reduce nitrate by first reducing ammonium, right? So they _could_ be a substitute/partial substitute for a biological/mechanical filter (the kind that uses nitrifying bacteria to clean the water), right? Or is there something missing in my logic? I'm still a newbie, so I hesitate to state anything for sure. 

I'm not trying to say we can all get rid of our filters and replace them with clams. Just trying to figure out exactly what my little clams are doing in my tank.


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## Galactic Doug

Just to keep this in perspective, Wild waterways are with very few exceptions NOT aquariums. Therefor I would surmise that any given info in regards to water cleansing abilities of the clam in the wild to be inherantly flawed for aquarium purposes. 

I will stand my own ground on the facts that I have observed with these little friends:

1) With only 3 of them(Cobicula Fluminea) in a tank I have not seen ANY appriciable filtering of micro-nutrients or changes in the tank water values such as ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.

2) The same tank without clams ran before my adding them for about 9 months and had the same conditions applied as when the clams were in the tank.

3) I DID see greenwater and small detritus reduce to zero in my own tank over a short timeframe with clams present.

4) There are probably more than one species presently obtainable and therefor might be differences in their abilities to "use" nutrients and GW for feeding by the clams. This is not "proven" that I could find online. Just opinions like mine.

Make your own opinions by testing there abilities with different conditions as though you were in a lab, or just plain enjoy the fact that they are there and like them for being different than anything else you have in your tank... 

Doug


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## andy1_52

This is all some great discussion! I think I will buy a clam now just to see what it does! I will keep it in a pot though so I don't lose him.


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## Hypancistrus

Just an FYI, I used to keep freshwater clams (_Corbicula_) in my tank. You will *never* see them, as they completely burrow into the substrate and stay there.


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## CampCreekTexas

Yep, Andy, they don't do much. The best laugh (and only laugh really, until I made them do it again) I got out of mine was when I first put them in there. And I was really laughing at my fish, not the clams. The clams started moving to dig themselves down into the pots and my betta was fascinated! You know how dogs tilt their heads sometimes as if they're saying, "What the hell?!" I swear that's what that betta was doing. A clam would move and he'd "jump" away half an inch or so, staying in his "watching position" ~ body curved, head cocked to one side ~ then he'd move closer again, one would move and he'd "jump", then move back closer again. It was hilarious! He kept swimming down to look at them all day, even after they'd all buried themselves.

But other than that, they really don't "do" anything. I enjoy them just because they're another living thing, kind of like they're part of the little ecosystem in my tank I guess. I like to look down in the pots and see their siphons working ~ and that's about all you'll ever see (unless you're a meanie like me and dig them out every now and again just to make them dig back in so you can watch :hihi: ).





Galactic Doug said:


> Just to keep this in perspective, Wild waterways are with very few exceptions NOT aquariums. Therefor I would surmise that any given info in regards to water cleansing abilities of the clam in the wild to be inherantly flawed for aquarium purposes.


 Of course large waterways aren't aquariums, but the NCSU study didn't study them only in situ. The article says they captured some and studied them that way as well. Therefore, I figured that they studied them while the clams were in relatively small amounts of water ~ as in aquariums.



> 1) With only 3 of them(Cobicula Fluminea) in a tank I have not seen ANY appriciable filtering of micro-nutrients or changes in the tank water values such as ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.


 Good info to know. How many gallons was your tank? I think just for grins I may do this experiment one day with many clams in a ten gallon, or even a one gallon. 



> 3) I DID see greenwater and small detritus reduce to zero in my own tank over a short timeframe with clams present.


 That's the best part IMHO ~ the absolutely crystal clear water is amazing and worth the extra work of feeding them and putting up with cloudy GW every now and again in their tank (until I can find a better way of feeding them).



> 4) There are probably more than one species presently obtainable and therefor might be differences in their abilities to "use" nutrients and GW for feeding by the clams.


 While researching these, I did run across another possible species name ~ _Corbicula manilensis_ ~ in the WetWebMedia article and researched it to make sure my ID of my clams (being C. fluminea) was correct. Seems there's a disagreement among "Those That Know" (the guys with .edu and .gov in their email addresses) regarding whether _C. manilensis_ is in the US or not, or is even a different species. I didn't find much of anything on them and only one picture that showed them being much darker than _C. fluminea_ and my clams.



> ...or just plain enjoy the fact that they are there and like them for being different than anything else you have in your tank...


Oh, THAT I'll do regardless. Even though they don't "do" anything, I still like the little buggers and always will. I'm just one of those people who like to know all I can about everything.:hihi: :icon_lol:


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## Galactic Doug

The tank size was a 30 long. 

They are filter feeders and so I used Kent Marines Liquid Invertabrate food when no green water was present. They seemed to siphon this out with gusto and stayed alive for 3 years+.

I wasn't to caring if there was more than one species since the one that I had was fun to have around. I like things that are "different" so I have had crabs, clams, water skippers (from ponds) and especially dwarf african frogs which bred for me several times.

Anything that looks different than fish and plants has a vote from me.

Have fun with your pets!
Doug


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## andy1_52

so how exactly do you feed the invert food to the clams... just dump it in the water or squirt it right by them with a siphon or turkey bast


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## Galactic Doug

Galactic Doug said:


> Something else you can do is to feed the clams/muscles on marine invertabrate food by Kent Marine or other. Just use a pipette or silicone a turkey baster with a section of 3/16" stiff tubing into the open end so that you can feed them from above the water line.
> Mix the Invert food into some water say about 1-2 cups then use the device you choose to siphon it all up and squirt it close to the clam when they are open.
> 
> This will keep them alive for up to about three years or so. I have used this before with the Corbicual species and had good results.
> 
> Good luck!


As seen above you can use this or other methods.


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## TheVisionary78

I have kept freshwater clams for years. These are my tips.

1. This is the planted tank forum however you might be advised to keep your freshwater clam and your planted tank separate. They bury themselves and are ultra sensative to ferts even with minimal amounts of copper. Copper is in almost all of liquid ferts.

2. Feed them Liquid nutrition. Once every 3 days.

3. Keep temprature on the low end. If the type of fish you keep have a low temp say 72- 75 then go with that. They do better. They can survive much higher but they tend to not live as long

Other than that they are very entertaining and fun to watch when they come out and do there thing with there foot.


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## lauraleellbp

'Tis the week of thread resurrections. :hihi:


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## Lycosa

I've also kept them with success. After having SW clams, I was hooked on them and figured my FW tanks had to have one too. To feed, I have a 10" glass pipette and feed them phytoplankton that I grow myself. 

To make it, just grab some grass clippings from your lawn (make sure it's pesticide free) and throw them in a clear jug and throw it in the sun. 5-7 days later, you have clam food. 

Use a pipette to push some phyto near the clam's siphon.. (make sure it's in feed mode).

Simple enough.

Clams are one of my favorite aquatic animals.. don't know why, but ever since I grew up a Tridacna clam in my reef tank, I've been hooked.

If you dig really deep on the net, you'll see several experiments using algae scrubbers + clams to make natural filters. Some people swear by it, I haven't tried it to know.


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## Lycosa

lauraleellbp said:


> 'Tis the week of thread resurrections. :hihi:


lol.. I just realized the OP date. The dead live! The dead live! :hihi:


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## deljzc

Was curious what people thought about putting a clam or two in my sump filtration tank?

I have a gravel area, after the filter wool and before the bio balls with a considerable amount of water flow.

Could clams maybe do some things to clear the water that replace carbon? I could easily feed them that protoplankton stuff recommend above during my weekly maintenance cycle.


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## MABJ

Dang. This is a helluh old thread... But I'm glad people dug it twice up rather than making a new post  kinda adds to 
it. 

--
I don't think many people recommend freshwater clams here. I've never seen them in person, nor tried keeping them. So I can't say you can't do it, but I know they're not interchangeable with filters. They take what they want from the water. They don't 'filter' it per say.


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## deljzc

You'd be surprised how often this website and forum pop up when you look for fish tank answers in Google.

Clams seem kind of fun for my kids to see now and again but I agree after researching them, they aren't ideal in any planted aquarium. Just curious if they can work in a sump/refugium type system and if there are some benefits to that?


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## MABJ

deljzc said:


> You'd be surprised how often this website and forum pop up when you look for fish tank answers in Google.
> 
> Clams seem kind of fun for my kids to see now and again but I agree after researching them, they aren't ideal in any planted aquarium. Just curious if they can work in a sump/refugium type system and if there are some benefits to that?


Whats the setup of your sump?

If I'm not mistaken, they enjoy moving through substrate. So if they won't have room to move, I don't think it would be ideal.


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## deljzc

MABJ said:


> Whats the setup of your sump?
> 
> If I'm not mistaken, they enjoy moving through substrate. So if they won't have room to move, I don't think it would be ideal.


Underneath the first "baffle", I put about 2-3" thick of gravel mix. My sump is only an old 10 gallon tank, so it's about 10" deep x 5" wide x 2-3" thick of substrate. The baffle partially sticks down into that area.

I've read where some people restrict areas for their clams with containers in their main tank substrate so they can find them before cleaning and check they are still alive, so I don't think clams need a particularly large area.

I have been reading up and see littleneck clams have been used in saltwater sump tanks to filter out floating algae and plankton, but I'm still checking if there is evidence that freshwater clams can do the same thing. I assume they can.


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## MABJ

Hey it's worth a shot if you're willing to risk it. I personally wouldn't lol. Again, I'm only trying to help until someone with clam experience comes in, you know?


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## kickasstimus

I have 4 large clams in my 30 gal freshwater tank. I just borrowed them from a local pond. I'll usually clear the green water up with 4 or 5 clams, then return all but one to back to the pond where I find them. I leave the one in for maintenance and it'll keep things under control until the sun starts shining on the tank ... then the green water starts up again. 

I don't know if my tank is unusual or anything. I "inoculated" it with pond water and there are all kinds of things living in it; clams, ghost shrimp, fire shrimp, mollies and platys, three different kinds of snail, and a rubber lip and a bristle nose pleco, and three cory cats. It's a planted tank with three big hunks of hole-shot limestone and a chunk of driftwood in it. 

Green water has been my only problem and it doesn't pop up that often. Since adding the clam, it happens much less frequently. 

When I do water changes, I use pond water. So far, no health issues for the fish, no bad smells; it just looks like I have a section of pond on display. YMMV, but I figure the clams are important in the nutrient cycle, so I keep them.


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