Clam/mussel ID and can I feed to my fish
- Thread starter Rtc/tsn
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As long as they’ll help then I’m good with that. What do you suggest.
Kolton13
I’ve never seen duckweed for sale. I’m wanting plants from the blue whale catfish’s natural habitat.
Could do Amazon swords.As long as they’ll help then I’m good with that. What do you suggest.
Amazon swords are good. Java fern, hornwort, and anubias are great beginner plants though not Amazon based.
Much like fish, different species thrive under certain water parameters. Some are forgiving, some need highly specific conditions. Most need some kind of fertilizer, often root tabs, to help them grow and survive. Most often they also need intense lighting. The reason I suggest hornwort, anubias, and Java ferns is that all three will grow in low light (I currently am growing hornwort with minimal light and grew an Anubias quite large with almost no additional light besides sunlight for both), are very forgiving to water conditions, and have no need for fertilizers (though they do help). Javas and anubias shouldn’t be buried in the substrate, but attached to decor instead.
Sorry I am late to this party, but I am glad everyone got to the bottom of it. In some places mussels are allowed to be collected, but as always know the rules. Keeping mussels is an entirely different conversation. Having enough food in a tank to support them is very difficult. If I was going to try it I would spot feed using a cut 2 liter to concentrate food over the mussel and give it time to eat that. I really don't think it is worth it. While they aren't mussels I would practice with Corbicula clams it will get you closer to ready just make sure they are legal in your area.
As for using plant instead of filters, it can be done but the bioload needs to be much smaller than most people enjoy. I have seen some beautiful tanks done like this, but there were very few fish. Collecting plants from the wild is fine (if legal), but you need a biosecurity plan. Either quarantine the plants or dip them in potassium permanganate. If you haven't kept plants substrate and light are the two most important things you should think about when setting up the tank.
As for using plant instead of filters, it can be done but the bioload needs to be much smaller than most people enjoy. I have seen some beautiful tanks done like this, but there were very few fish. Collecting plants from the wild is fine (if legal), but you need a biosecurity plan. Either quarantine the plants or dip them in potassium permanganate. If you haven't kept plants substrate and light are the two most important things you should think about when setting up the tank.
I’m not going to be taking plants from the wild. The reason I’m wanting to keep a mussel or add plants to help filtration is because when I had an overstocked tank there started to be a bunch of big clumps of algae and little particles in the water that my filter isn’t able to keep up with so I was researching and found out that mussels are filter feeders so I thought if I kept one in my aquarium for a while then it would help clean up my tank.
The easiest way to deal with the problems of over-stocked tanks is...wait for it...to not overstock your tanks.
Thanks, F FJB for that interesting and informative post regarding FW mussels. I had no idea they were so endangered. When I was a kid growing up in Windsor, Ontario I lived only a few blocks from the Detroit River, which forms the border between Canada and the U.S. at that point. I fished that river constantly, and back then it was not unusual to snag the occasional mussel while bottom fishing. To my best recollection they looked pretty much identical to the one pictured in this thread. The Detroit River at that time (late 60's, early 70's) was much more polluted, and visibly cloudier and murkier than it has become in recent years. I'd be curious to learn if the mussels are still doing well there.
Thanks, F FJB for that interesting and informative post regarding FW mussels. I had no idea they were so endangered. When I was a kid growing up in Windsor, Ontario I lived only a few blocks from the Detroit River, which forms the border between Canada and the U.S. at that point. I fished that river constantly, and back then it was not unusual to snag the occasional mussel while bottom fishing. To my best recollection they looked pretty much identical to the one pictured in this thread. The Detroit River at that time (late 60's, early 70's) was much more polluted, and visibly cloudier and murkier than it has become in recent years. I'd be curious to learn if the mussels are still doing well there.
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I know but once you clear out an overstocked tank but still have something that can’t be moved out it a bit hard to deal with the mess from your last stock. I was dumb and just excited to have fish e when I first got my aquarium but now I know so much more and not to overstocked and get things that get like 60+ pounds in a 40g tank.
