Freshwater clam anyone?

[Fishfur]

Too true. You don't see much of clams, as they usually dig into the substrate until nothing much shows other than their tubes. And I never had a dead one foul water. Snails and shrimp find them soon after they die and clean them out quite thoroughly. I never had one fail to open up once it had died, poor thing.

Though I swore I would not try them again, I changed my mind and now have 3 small golden Asian clams. In the store I got them from, the owner there had been keeping them for a long time with good success, so I thought, I'll try one more time. Different species than the clams I had before too, which were the black and white ones and shark tooths, the last of which I think may be cold water animals, which might explain why they did so poorly in my tank.

Can't say I ever even thought of eating clams from an aquarium. With all the stuff we put in the tanks, I'd be afraid to eat anything from an ornamental tank anyway. If you're raising fish or other things to eat using aquaponics, that's a different story.

I do think the main trick is to have a very mature tank, with at least a couple of square feet per clam, and good water circulation always. A supplemental water pump is a good idea if you are keeping any kind of filter feeding animals. And supplemental feeding really is necessary.

I wish I knew what the temperature range is where they originate, as I've suspected part of their problem might be temps that are too warm. Because they live on the bottom, even in fairly warm waters their bottom habitat could be considerably cooler than surface temperatures would indicate, and possibly many degrees cooler than most fish tanks are. For some species, warmer temps speed growth, but for some others, they shorten life spans, sometimes by quite a bit. It's a stress factor.. consider how we feel on hot days if we can't get cooled off. Might be clams would do better in unheated, even cold water tanks. But indoors, there are limits to how cold a tank is likely to get, and one has to consider the other inhabitants as well as the clams.

Good luck with them.. even though they are not especially entertaining, I find it interesting to be able to have a variety of life in my tanks.

And there's a typo in my last post.. should say Golden pearls 5 - 50 microns in size, which is the smallest size they make this product in.

 

[MikeWhitfield]

Too true. You don't see much of clams, as they usually dig into the substrate until nothing much shows other than their tubes. And I never had a dead one foul water. Snails and shrimp find them soon after they die and clean them out quite thoroughly. I never had one fail to open up once it had died, poor thing.

Though I swore I would not try them again, I changed my mind and now have 3 small golden Asian clams. In the store I got them from, the owner there had been keeping them for a long time with good success, so I thought, I'll try one more time. Different species than the clams I had before too, which were the black and white ones and shark tooths, the last of which I think may be cold water animals, which might explain why they did so poorly in my tank.

Can't say I ever even thought of eating clams from an aquarium. With all the stuff we put in the tanks, I'd be afraid to eat anything from an ornamental tank anyway. If you're raising fish or other things to eat using aquaponics, that's a different story.

I do think the main trick is to have a very mature tank, with at least a couple of square feet per clam, and good water circulation always. A supplemental water pump is a good idea if you are keeping any kind of filter feeding animals. And supplemental feeding really is necessary.

I wish I knew what the temperature range is where they originate, as I've suspected part of their problem might be temps that are too warm. Because they live on the bottom, even in fairly warm waters their bottom habitat could be considerably cooler than surface temperatures would indicate, and possibly many degrees cooler than most fish tanks are. For some species, warmer temps speed growth, but for some others, they shorten life spans, sometimes by quite a bit. It's a stress factor.. consider how we feel on hot days if we can't get cooled off. Might be clams would do better in unheated, even cold water tanks. But indoors, there are limits to how cold a tank is likely to get, and one has to consider the other inhabitants as well as the clams.

Good luck with them.. even though they are not especially entertaining, I find it interesting to be able to have a variety of life in my tanks.

And there's a typo in my last post.. should say Golden pearls 5 - 50 microns in size, which is the smallest size they make this product in.

The temperature thing is interesting. My tanks were unheated but would not drop below low sixties. Filtration was HOB, typically 15 - 20 changes per hour.

 

[Autumnsky]

Mine are still closed and don't seemed to have moved. The one has a wee little gap and I believe I see some movement inside, very slight.

They are placed in an area with good flow from the FX-5 filter blasting the water through.

 

[Alan79]

I've never kept clams but if they feed poorly in aquariums due to water movement and filtration cleaning up their food, why not place them in a cup to feed where you can concentrate the food for them specifically. I don't know if this would stress them but you could try experimenting by placing one in a cup to feed daily and leaving the other in the tank. See if one puts on weight.

 

[Fishfur]

Clams, like snails, close up tight if you touch them or move them. And they tend to stay that way for awhile, though as with any animal, it depends on the individual. You could certainly try cup feeding them, but I suspect it would be quite a bit of work to keep it up, and they would have to have some form of water current even in a cup, perhaps an air stone would suffice.

All told I've had about nine clams. Even the ones that did not live more than a few weeks, [ the sharktooths] dug in fairly soon after being put on the bottom. If they are very weak, making that big effort might just be what does them in, or at least, this is a suspicion I have.

My sharktooths came from a batch that did very poorly in the store, well over 3/4s of the shipment did not live two weeks past delivery. I took six at a steep discount, hoping I might do better with them but I think they were already starved beyond salvation. Yet all of them had dug into the substrate by the morning after I got them. Another thing I have since wondered is if the substrate was deep enough for them. They were about 3 inches long, and could not dig in more than 2 inches, as my substrate was only about 2 inches deep. The black and white and small Asian gold ones all can disappear in that depth of substrate, which is one of their main means of camouflage in the wild.

But clams can be as individual as any animals, some simply don't seem to be in much of a hurry to dig down. Others will start to dig in the moment they seem to sense they're not going to be bothered again.

So long as there is at least some width between the two shell halves, the clam is at least breathing. Tubes in the species I've had did not stick out much beyond the shell edge, but they do stick out a wee bit.. just keep watching and you will see it. Unlike, say, a geoduck clam. This is a marine shore living species harvested for eating which has a breathing tube a foot long.. it sticks that up from its burrow deep in the sand, and they can dig down so fast, catching one is a real skill, so I've read, and seen on TV. The little clam species we get for tanks have very short tubes, which can be a challenge to see clearly.

They certainly do filter water, and like any filter feeder, take micro organisms, bacteria and other things of similar size in with their water and sift them out. One reason a mature tank will support them better is that it will have more micro fauna to offer, and bacteria as well.

In nature, if they're sexually mature, I've read that they spawn regularly, but I've not seen spawning in mine, not as yet. I have read that some clam species have larvae that hitch rides on fish gills.. something I'd like to learn more about. Such as whether they'll use any fish or only specific species and if they do any harm in the process.

I suspect if they do spawn in a tank, most of the eggs likely are eaten or filtered out before they can hatch, assuming they are even fertile. Perhaps eaten by filter feeding shrimp, if you have those in the tank. In marine tanks, some shell fish spawn is food for the corals, and you can buy frozen oyster eggs to feed filter feeders too. Come to think of it, I don't know if clams are male/female or hermaphrodites, like some snails. Another thing I'll have to try to find out.

Something the store owner mentioned to me when I got the new clams, is that he's noticed that many of the shrimp he sells tend to breed when the moon is full. This is also true of many other water living species.. sea turtles are famous for this. Might be true of clams as well. If so, observing clams at the times of full moons might reveal more information on spawning.

Edit. Some info, not much, I found on Asian clam breeding. Species name Corbicula fluminea.....

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...invertebrates/36738-how-do-i-breed-clams.html

C. fluminea have free swimming larvae that do not parasitize fish gills. They're like some snails, individuals produce both eggs and sperm, releasing sperm after the eggs, somewhere between one and four years of age.

Those species that DO latch onto fish gills, I read, usually have a very specific species of fish they use to hitch hike on, and don't usually do much damage, if any, as it's mainly a means of moving around before they become adults. Typically they have very narrow requirements to successfully spawn, which aren't likely to happen in a tank anyway.

I think the brown/white/black ones I had were in fact mussels, not clams, have to check into that.

 

[Fishfur]

Found one more thing of interest. Someone with a recipe for clam food.. just happened across this. Does not give quantities, but it's got some ideas that might be of use for feeding clams. Also suggests measuring shells to judge whether the clams are feeding properly or not. Diet is on page following the one cited.

Site article here: Introduction: Keeping and Care of Freshwater Clams In Aquariums

 

[Autumnsky]

Will check it out!

Here's my clam, one of the two.

 

[Fishfur]

It's got it's shell open enough to be feeding and breathing.. should eventually bury himself, though maybe he's an exhibitionist clam ?

 

[Autumnsky]

Yes my thoughts as well, though I have no personal experience until now. The 2nd one is turned around the other way so it is difficult to see it, I am thinking of stirring up some sediment in the Eco complete and see if the food smell gets them to open. They haven't seemed to move or bury themselves yet. I am a little concerned about them (of course).

 

[Autumnsky]

My clam #2, not the one in the pic, burrowed down sometime this afternoon and I can see just the little filter or air tube part about a couple mm only of the edge of the shell.

I am so excited!!! I thought it was not well. My two Bamboo shrimp are seemingly doing good too!