Freshwater clams in 125 gallon

[JessTheMess92]

Ok so I've heard clams can help keep your tank clean they seem like and interesting addition to a tank but I've heard they can be dangerous If they die while buried. My tank is a 125 gallon somewhat heavily planted and I plan to eventually have snails shrimp neon tetras platies and guppies. What are your thoughts on clams in a setup like that? And have any of you had good experiences with freshwater clams?

Edited September 21, 2020 by JessTheMess92

[Daniel]

I have kept freshwater clams in my biggest aquarium.

The problem I ran into was that clames are filter feeders and it was impossible for me to keep enough infusoria circulating in the aquarium water to feed them, so they starved to death eventually.

Short of pouring in green water every day I am not sure how you would keep them alive.

[JessTheMess92]

Thanks for the info! I appreciate it

[Jeremy B]

I want to say I heard Cory say something about feeding freshwater clams (maybe it was filter feeding shrimp?) with First Bites but I could be entirely mistaken... I listen at work so I zone out at times. I have kept some freshwater clams but have had the same experience as Daniel, they eventually die off due to what I believe was starvation. Hopefully Cory will chime in with some good advice as I would love to keep one myself if I wasn't going to starve it.

[JessTheMess92]

14 minutes ago, Jeremy B said:

I want to say I heard Cory say something about feeding freshwater clams (maybe it was filter feeding shrimp?) with First Bites but I could be entirely mistaken... I listen at work so I zone out at times. I have kept some freshwater clams but have had the same experience as Daniel, they eventually die off due to what I believe was starvation. Hopefully Cory will chime in with some good advice as I would love to keep one myself if I wasn't going to starve it.

THANKS!

[Daniel]

@JessTheMess92, Wow! I have been so clueless. I posted above that my freshwater clams had starved to death. I went over to my tank and took a photo to prove it. It was easy to find an empty clam shell.

Wait a minute! The last of those clams in that tank died at least 6 years ago. How come there a so many clam shells scattered around the substrate...no, it couldn't be, could it?

It just goes to show that you can only see what you believe is there. The freshwater clams are clearly not as 'starved to death' as I had previously assumed. I guess my tank is dirtier

richer in microflora and fauna than I realized. I am stunned.

[Jeremy B]

I stumbled across the video with Cory talking about feeding first bites to a filter feeder "3 best beginner shrimp for freshwater aquariums [live stream]" was the video at 46 minutes

[Ben_RF]

I was able to keep two freshwater clams going for a while, however, honestly I don't think a regular aquarium setup (even dirty tanks) are very well suited for them.

What I did was every day for almost a year was to take a plastic container with a whole I drilled in the bottom, and sat it over the clam. I then took a syringe with spirulina water and squirted with the syringe through the hole the mixture so that it would be contained. I would let it sit for about an hour before removing the container.  To be perfectly honest, this kind of became burdensome.  And in time, even though I was trying, the clam did eventually die.

A lot of people experience a very large ammonia spike after a clam dies, though I did not.   

[Ben_RF]

Oh and some of the ones you can buy off like ebay are illegal in many states / countries.  So check your local laws and regulations before buying any. 

[Ben_RF]

Ok well @Daniel, who is awesome, may have just proven me wrong. Which is great! So Daniel, I would love to hear more about that tank. 🙂

[Daniel]

@Ben_RF Here is brief history with water parameters at the end.

Let me says again how stunned I am to find live clams in this aquarium.

How long do clams live? Are these the original clams I put in years ago or are they the great-grandchildren of the founding group? How could I not once in the last 5 years notice a colony of clams in an aquarium with almost no plants that I look at everyday.?

The aquarium itself is 500 plus gallons and has housed a group Leopoldi angelfish all born and raised together over the last 5 or 6 years. I am now using this aquarium as a grow out tank for a group of 11 juvenile discus. The discus were nickel sized in July and are hand sized now. They get a pound of blackworms every week usually just thrown in all at once, and multiple dry food feeding daily.

This is what may have kept the clams alive...this aquarium has no filter. It is fed by a reverse osmosis system and overflows out to a pond. I don't gravel vac this tank and there is lots of mulm and lots of free floating particulate matter too, and yet I would describe the water as clear with a slight hint of cloudiness from time to time. The water parameters in the tank are:

General hardness 0

Carbonate hardness 1.13 °dKH

Nitrate 10.14 mg/l

Phosphorus 110.5 µg/l

84 °F (now) used to 81 °F from 2015 until 2019

pH 6.55 today, floats around in 6s

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Dissolved oxygen 7.9 ppm

I think what keep the clams alive is tremendously good water flow and high levels of floating gunk. All the other water parameter probably are bad for clams.

You can see clams shells scattered about, which is one reason I thought there were no living clams, and the fact it had been 6 years.

 

[Ben Ellison]

I believe most people lean towards  filter shrimp due to them easier  and doing the same job?

[Ben_RF]

Thank you @Daniel!  And for the clarity, shellfish do an amazing job of removing particulants and small organisms out of the water column. I know down here on the coast when we seed a section of water to make a new oyster bed, the water clears up almost beyond belief.  I would imagine the same thing is happening in your aquarium in regards to algae and bacteria.  Speaking of which, I need to remember to go this weekend to rake up one last round of clams for the year before it gets to cold.  

[Daniel]

Okay, I feel a bit better on why I missed seeing the living clams present in my aquarium (1 inch from the glass and in the open) for the last 2190 consecutive days without me noticing

They are &!?$ near invisible unless your are specifically scanning for them. Here is what I mean:

Sure, I can see the dead ones in the background, but the live ones are slivers of yellow similar to the color of some of the sand. They are 99% buried happily filter feeding.

What I missed was that even though I put in a dozen live clams 6 years ago, this aquarium has about 60 dead clam shells scattered about. I should have done the math realized that they were breeding. All I knew was my clams were dead and all I saw was dead clams shells, case closed right? Not even close.

[Ben_RF]

BTW, is that the asian clam ( corbicula fluminea )?

[Daniel]

I believe so. At the time I was more dimwitted when it came to buying invasive species. I just found my order invoice from Liveaquaria.com from March 8, 2014 for the clams. Liveaquaria currently stocks Corbicual sp clams so I am starting to connect all the dots.

No wonder they are invasive, apparently if an average aquarist, of average intelligence and below average powers of observation cannot successfully kill them over a period of 6 years, then what possibly could kill them? Kryponite?