Fresh Water Clams!

[Stoner]

Hi Guys…

Went to Y618 yesterday, and bought a fresh water clam out of curiosity…

Heard that it’s a plankton (spelling correct?) feeder… thus set it up facing the flow of the “rain bar”.

Has any one ever had any success them?

I have two cute little mountain shrimps in my tank too… they are always clinging on to leafs near the opening of the rain bar. They have survived in my planted tank for the last 2 months, hope that this little clam of mine survive too…

[cakchew]

hi! i bought two clams and they dug right into the sand. cant find them till now. haha.....its been at least a month liao. hope they are doing ok.

[tormentz]

Tried purchasing a couple of them before but the longest any of them survived was around 1 month. They would dig deep into your substrate so not advisable if you have planted tanks, my tank was sparsely planted so it wasn't too bad.

[Jungle-mania]

Bad news, when they do die, they pollute the water profusely. Another thing is that they cannot live in too clean an environment to survive.

[bryan]

Not a good idea. You won't know if they are dead until they really mess up the water. There is one LFS in redhill that keeps them in a pail. You can smell it from far.

[Stoner]

??? Mine did'nt dig in as I'm using gravel...

Life span 1 month???

Hope the little critter don't die on me...

[flashout]

Man.. i was looking for it in Malaysia, Penang, cannot find any. Last time did have one before, but die less then a month.

I want to give it a try againt, but cannot found anymore.

[XnSdVd]

Guys, i believe they're brackish water clams... Hence the plankton diet...

[bryan]

I did have one that snuck in on a bunch of C.balanse. I chucked it in a 2ft tank for a lark where it stuck itself onto the driftwood. It stayed there for about 4 to 5 months before I got paranoid and threw it out.

[Jungle-mania]

Actually you can get freshwater clams in our local reservoirs, possible saltwater variant that became endemic to the area over time. I would not be surprised to find similar species propagating into freshwater in other neighbouring countries.

[Shaihulud]

Anyone had any sucess with the clams? There are 2 different kinds of clams sold, one which is bigger mussel shaped, another is more regular and looks like 'lokang' also generically called golden clams. Well i bought one golden clam 4 months ago and it seems to be cohabiting nicely with my dwarf shrimp and swamp eels in my 20 gallon tank. Only wished i gotten more of them I believe the species is Corbicula fluminea, and not parasitic when in zooplankton stage as some freshwater clams are. It likes to hang in the region where i drop in my sinking tablet in front of the tank, actually thought it was a goner, never actually seen it until recently.

[flashout]

I still tried to look for more clams in Malaysia, but seem like its never sold here. I saw few other website, oversea, mostly UK, they seem to have few type of fresh water clams.

[godprint]

how do you guys know it's dead?

i read from an article that fresh water clams can be used in part of your filtration...

haha i'm thinking of doing that.

[Shaihulud]

You can tell its dead if it opens up and when it stinks, it stinks pretty fast after death too. saying that, i will have to warn anyone trying to keep them that you don't actually get to see them, or to know where they are most of the time. I only know where mine is because i know its favourite burrow spots, so you might only know when its dead by the smell...

I don't really think they are a reliable source of filtration.

[David Moses Heng]

i bought six for my 422. Died after 1 week. As a result of that, i lost some neons and rummynose also. Threw 2 into my newt tank. died after 1 month. Water stanks!!

[godprint]

oh my goodness... ok noted. thanks!

[aquanatix]

I"m guessing when dead it sorta resembles the all time Singaporean favorite delicacy cockles(see hum)? Interesting how fresh water clams can be integrated into a planted! Honestly, the thought never came across to me. Anyone here seen pictures of planted or water clam themed tanks?

[eraserbones]

I think that the 'golden clams' (which are 'clam shaped' rather than 'mussel shaped') are Corbicula, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbicula

I kept quite a few of them in a large (4') planted tank with a sandy substrate. They did quite well for more than a year -- once they got themselves positioned properly they didn't move around much or disturb my plants, but they would open up their shells and filter-feed from time to time. This is a tank with intentionally low filtration levels in order to encourage plankton growth, so there was plenty for them to eat. I'm not sure if they would have done so well in a normal crystal-clear tank.

Also -- this tank had a chiller, running consistently below 24 degrees. When the chiller failed for a few days, all the clams immediately died. So, I suspect that they are not a good candidate for Singapore tanks unless you're already running things cold for your shrimp.

Also, just a warning -- most freshwater mussels have a larval stage which is parasitic on fish gills. So, whereas Corbicula (which produce free-swimming larvae) might be a good choice for some tanks, most other varieties are probably not such a good idea.

Oh, by the way -- Corbicula F. are an invasive species in parts of my native Minnesota. I hear tell that they're delicious