How to monitor the general health of a freshwater clam?

[robmayolnyc]

How to monitor the general health of a freshwater clam?

I have a 30 G, with a small school of 5 black phantom tetras, 1 marbleized veil tail angelfish, many plants, ghost shrimp and assassin snails and one freshwater clam.

My question is how do you know if your clam is healthy. All of my fish, shrimp and snails are very healthy and stress free. My water quality is great with basically zero ammonia and 7.0 ph. As deteriorating and dead clams cause ammonia spikes, is there anyway to monitor their general health?

He stays shut tightly inside most of the time, but rarely moves. I've worked very hard for the harmony and water quality, and I don't want this clam to mess everything up.

 

[V227]

I don't think healthy Mussels are supposed to move much. Also they are supposed to be relatively maintenence free if the tank water is kept cooler "mid 70's" and other fish are present, as they eat dissolved food waste.
I guess a way to check if the mussel is alive would be to periodically lean it against the tank glass and see if it rights itself back onto the substrate.
There are mussels all over the rocky bottom farm ponds surrounding my house. I never thought of putting them in my tanks. I might try it. Thanks for posting.

 

[Wy Renegade]

The biggest issue with freshwater mussels is that they are a filter-feeder that is quite capable of filter most freshwater aquarium in a single day, and then they slowly starve to death. A successful freshwater tank would have to have a huge biodiversity of microorganisms or you would have to supplement feed the mussel in order to keep it thriving.