Freshwater Clams

[Laker]

Hello,

I am new here, and hoping someone can help me out. I have a 75Gal. Mbuna tank, and also a seasonal pond on a three season porch. In addition to local sunfish, we've had a couple of freshwater clams from a nearby lake in the pond all summer. (A very clean lake in northern MN) I mentioned to my children that we would soon have to take the clams (and fish) back to the lake, when they asked if we could put them in the aquarium. My first response was a hearty "No way!", as I know there must be native bacteria and parasites. Afterwards, I thought myself that it would be quite unique to have them. So, is there anyway to effectively sterilize the clams without killing them? The fact that they have lived in my pond through pump malfunctions, overfeeding by children, and drastic temp. changes when refilling makes me believe that they must be quite hearty. (Wow, I never use the word "hearty", and now twice in one paragraph!) Any ideas or experience with this?

Thank you,

Laker

 

[Guest]

first off, it is well known here i am not a big fan of pulling things from lakes and putting them in tanks... but that aside, i do want to help ya here =)

sunfish are actually verypretty fish. And they don't get tooooo overly huge or have too unusual needs so my thoughts are:

Yes, you can keep them. But not with your Mbunas. What I would do is get a 125+ tank and do a biotope of the lake you caught the fish and clams from. I think that it would be advisable to keep the fish and clams alone, and not introduce anything else until they are well established for a few months in their own tank. Make sure they are free of disease.

You could have a really pretty tank if you do it right. I'd look up information about the lake you caught them from and try to make the environment as similar as possible.

good luck.

 

[lyquidphyre]

Welcome to AA!!

I like FishyPeanut's idea of putting the clams in their own tank for a while to get used to the "aquarium life" (I figured you were going to put the fish back and try to keep the clams, right?).

I wonder if a UV sterilizer would help take care of anything they might be carrying.

I bet you could keep the clams, but hopefully others will have a better idea of sterilizing them

 

[hc8719]

sorry most things that wipe out parasites and disease, also wipe out inverts. you could get a tank just for the clams and sunfish.

just the same, you can actually buy freshwater clams from places, i'll find a link to a site... http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1642

be sure that you have deep enough gravel, and that is small enough for the clam to dig in without cutting his foot up

btw dont a lot of cichlids eat snails and inverts?