Fresh water clams in a planted tank.

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OH10fiero

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 2, 2006
96
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Ohio
My LFS can get me fresh water clams on the cheap and I was thinking of getting them for a few of the tanks. One of the tanks I wanted to use them in was my 75 gallon planted tank but not sure if that would be a good idea since I spent good money for substrait to keep the plants happy. So can I add them and not have them siphon all that paid for to keep my plants healthy or should I just leave em out?
 
i think it should be ok they r filter feeders and the good substrait u added only get better with fish waste and the natural cycle of a system the clams would probally do very well with out hurting your pant enviroment at all
 
They won't be feeding on the nutrients in the substrate, they will be feeding off the nurtients in the water column itself. I have never heard of anyone doing that for the tank, but as they are burrowers you may run into a problem with them uprooting plants.
 
if you don't mind a few uprooted plants they should be good. it's good to have your gravel moved around a bit anyways.
 
A better way to have gravel moved around would be MTS IMO. The clams are a lot more finicky I hear, and harder to keep healthy. If 1 MTS dies, well no big deal, but a clam dying would be a lot of organic waste.
 
yeah... but they almost never move once established. and they are a bit of a pain in the butt to feed because they are filter feeders. they are not very hardy and sometimes die, and when they do, damn, do they stink!! also, most offered are CW and most likely wouldn't do well in a tropical tank.
 
fishcatch22;574701; said:
yeah... but they almost never move once established. and they are a bit of a pain in the butt to feed because they are filter feeders. they are not very hardy and sometimes die, and when they do, damn, do they stink!! also, most offered are CW and most likely wouldn't do well in a tropical tank.
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yepp i think it would work out just fine....they r very slow movers if even at all and as far as them diying if u have a eye on that tank once a day u can tell if it died and u remove it...so build up wont be so bad
 
They shouldn't adversely effect your tank...as long as they stay alive (heard they could be tricky to feed). Personally i think they'd be a pretty cool addition to your tank.
Good luck
 
I have a couple hundred golden clams in my Discus tank. I have no trouble with them uprooting plants.

I keep some other in an assorted cichlid tank and they get eaten left and right. It is really fun to watch!

What kind of clams are you getting? Reason I ask is some have a parisitic larval stage.
 
when i had a clam in my IDIOT days of fish keeping, that was the only form of filtration in a 2 ft with 2 silvers, and they all survived (with no wc) for over a year
 
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