golden freshwater clams

[Earthgoddess]

Does anyone have experience with or information on these Golden Freshwater Clams I won an auction for some that will be here soon and someone said that the offspring attach themselves to fish as a parasite is that true I read they attached themselves to the parent WILL THESE CLAMS HARM MY FISH IN ANY WAY? That is my concern

Please help Thanks

Here is the info included with the auction:

Fresh water clams are great filter feeder that burrows and anchor itself to your substrate to feed on the debris above them. This process also helps to aerate the substrate to keep it fresh & clean.They have no desire for any plants or breeding . They are extremely peaceful invertebrate only growing to a max size of 1". Fish will not bother these clams and are ignore them like rocks.They grow about 1" max and live up to 7 years. Once estrablish Freshwater clams are a truly no-maintenance pet, they require no additional food supplement , they will feed on bacteria and debris in the water to keep them alive. They can survive up to 0 Celsius(33 F) True survivor! Will do great in Ponds.
CLAM FACTOR:
- Keeps Gravel Clean and Aearated.
- Cures Cloudy and Green Water.
- Filter and clean the water biologically, no need for expensive filters. Wonderful for Nano Tanks.
- Reduces Nitrates!(eat harmful bacteria)
- Great for filtering fry rearing tanks, these creature do not eat fish.
- Can be put in a wet/dry for a bio-filter.
- Requires little to no attention. Suitable for many water condition.
- Does not eat plants or harm fish at all. Does not reproduce easily.
- Produce almost no waste.
- Reduces Blue Green Algae

- You can put empty shells into your filter to raise water hardness, great for African Cichlid tanks.

[ihob78]

Some of this info is false. Do not put these in a tank with invert eating fish such as puffers. Make sure you have a medium to fine substrate so they can burrow down. They are filter feeders but you could use a quality invert food to supplement their diet. Also they will not tolerate copper so test your water and if you're going to use any copper based treatments remove them first. They will not harm your fish.

[Earthgoddess]

Well Thank you I actually received them by accident at the post office this morning when I was going to pick up some shrimp they were there although without a heat pack or anything like promised so I am unsure if they are ok.

So what info is wrong exactly then?

Is seachem fluorite ok substrate for them?
I do not use copper in my tanks because I have shrimp so that is good

[ihob78]

I meant about your fish leaving them alone. There are alot of fish that will eat them. I've never worked with the seachem fluorite before but as long as it's fine to semi-fine they should be able able to borrow easily. Also depending on how many you have and the bioload of your tank you may want to supliment their diet with a high quality invert food.

[guppy]

The golden freshwater clams apparently do not produce a parasitical stage offspring, many of the FW clams do.

[Earthgoddess]

Thanks for your replies I put them in there own bowl with some heat I will wait and see how they do and move them.

[guppy]

By the way, welcome to MFK.

[BastardFish]

SH*T now you people have got me worried! I have 120 of these guys coming Wednesday. I had the understanding that if in a well established tank I would not have to worry about feeding. I thought they would filter feed bacteria and small food particals in the water. Ok if this is not the case someone please tell me a type of food that I can get my hands on! Also are we sure these little guys are not the ones that will spawn young that act like perasites??? Someone help panicing over here :eek:

[guppy]

If they were sold commercially theyare almost certainly the safe asian golden clams because those are the only ones I can find for sale online. As for feeding don't worry too much, get a turkey baster and every couple days give them a couple squirts of supplemental feeding. I have read that finely powdered flake food soaked in water works and I bet you could feed them like clamshell shrimp by just sucking up some filter sludge in the baster and using that.

[Earthgoddess]

You could feed DT's Live Marine phtoplankton
or
liquafry

here is a link to some info that was shared with me

http://www.fishaholics.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2012

Thanks for the welcome

[eelkpr]

who's got a good vendor for da' clams?

[Earthgoddess]

I found them on aquabid just had to pay for shipping

[Oddball]

I use these clams in my prefilter. I use several pounds of commercial feeds in my system each day. Alot of it breaks down to a fine powder that is picked up by the filter intakes. The clams screen alot of this silt out before the water goes through the filtration system. There's no provided substrate in the prefilter. Just the 'ash' silt from the commercial feeds and chitonous material from the crayfish.

[aquafever]

Attached are a couple links to give you info on those clams.

http://www.lander.edu/rsfox/310CorbiculaLab.html; http://www.iisgcp.org/EXOTICSP/Asianclam.htm

[guppy]

One of the vendors in the "buy and sell" carries them, Frank's Aquarium.