Menu advice

[Phlegethon]

Hello again. I'm seeking advice for what to feed the following community:

8 Head & Tail light Tetras
6 American-Flag fish
~20 Amano shrimp
~15 Asian freshwater gold clams
1 Bristlenose pleco

The Corydoras I had have all succumbed since last week.

There is a fair amount of algae in the tank that keeps the flag fish, pleco, and shrimp occupied. Generally I just feed the tetras a flake food (twice daily) supplemented with freeze dried brine shrimp and frozen blood worms (once/week). In particular any advice from anyone with experience keeping these clams would be highly appreciated. TIA

 

[tkos]

I would at least add an algae tab every other day for the pleco. Even though you may have lots of algae I wouldn't rely on it for a primary food source. 1 tab everyother day should help the pleco get his nutrition. The shrimp will be getting excess flakes and algae so they are cool. Don't know anything about the clams, but most mollusks are filter feeders.

 

[Allivymar]

If you haven't added a hunk of driftwood, I strongly suggest it. The plec will need the lignin in the wood for digestion. And do add the algae wafer as tkos said; it has other things the plec needs in it.

Everything I've read about FW clams suggests they are not good choices for the aquarium. Specifically, its kinda impossible to tell when they die, and they wind up messing up the substrate and the water parameters. Also, as filter feeders they need LOTS of suspended microorganisms; our tanks are often too clean to support them. Lastly, they bury themselves in the substrate, making them not too interesting to watch LOL

What size tank btw?

 

[Bearfan]

Actually a couple algae tabs a day will also help the AFF, which are pretty much the second best algae eater on the block, next to the SAE.

Also, AFF will eat some flake, and the tetras need it, I personally like The Rich Mix, but people debate this from time to time.

 

[Phlegethon]

Thanks for the advice. The tank is a 40 gallon. I have two large chunks of bogwood in there, the pleco basically lives under one of them. I haven't had a problem determining the status of the clams - when their shells are open and you can see a gap they are dead. Also the snails come poking around the dead ones. I lost 5 since I got them but the remaining ones seem to be doing fine. They don't do much, but I find them rather comical and enjoyable to contemplate. They "clam up" whenever the pleco grazes over them. They seem to be doing better since I dosed the tank with a tiny amount of iodine and added some phytoplankton. As for the American-Flag fish, these things are great! They graze on hair algae all day, between them and the shrimp my tank is quickly coming under control algae-wise. In fact I had a pretty bad problem with hair algae growing on the leaves of my Amazon sword plants. I was going to bleach them if the AFF didn't do the trick. So I would recommend them, although they are supposed to get nasty come breeding time. We'll see.

I got the AFF/shrimp/clams from AZ Aquatic Gardens btw. Best online mailorder I've experienced so far.

Now I'm off to add algae wafers to the menu...
thanks again.