Creek Diving & Clams

[Calico Goat]

I just returned from one of my favorite activities--creek diving--and now I'm wondering...I've never been able to keep my captures before, but I wanted to ask if I could possibly, once QT'd, keep the freshwater clams in my cooler-water cavefish tank? (I wish I could keep the salamander nymphs, but those I'll let go)

Getting them used to the water I know how to do, 't is the feeding part that I don't know what to do about...

[WinterWind]

Clams eat by filtering water and taking what food particles they can get.

IMO, Most aquarium water is too clean and doesn't have enough small suspended food for it to eat.

[daveedka]

More importantly, please check your local fishing laws, most clams/ mussels are protected, and even if they are permitted for harvest you will need a liscence and a knowledge of seasons before you do so. This has been asked on these boards many times, and in most cases the poster was guilty of violating several laws without any knowledge that they had done so. By all means if you have a liscence and legally harvested the animals then you could try to keep them, but feeding them is very difficult as mentioned above, and very few people have successfully kept these critters.
Dave

[Fish-Head Aric]

yah, bivalve mollusks (clams, mussels, etc) are for all practical purposes immobile. They do have moving abilities, but it's obvious by looking at them why they don't. They find a place that seems plentiful for food, and they stay there for long periods of time feeding on what ever floats through their immediate vicinity (within a few inches), sucking it in. Thus, unless you have a very active feedign regimen, you're going to have issues.

I have considered the possibility of how a clam (freshwater or marine) might do in a filter, though.

Prime example of failure: My 10 gallon marine coldwater tank experiment. I got a dozen mussels and they all dies within two weeks. On the other hand, my barnacles, though even less mobile, seem to be living on.

[Calico Goat]

More importantly, please check your local fishing laws, most clams/ mussels are protected, and even if they are permitted for harvest you will need a liscence and a knowledge of seasons before you do so. This has been asked on these boards many times, and in most cases the poster was guilty of violating several laws without any knowledge that they had done so.
Dave

Hmmm...I checked Dr. Foster & Smith, and they sell the same type of clam. They're just the little common brown ones with the white hinge, the shells of which you find by any creek in North Carolina... and they're sucking in the liquified crab meat that I gave to them...but since there's such a negative reaction, I'll release these when I go back out there to-morrow. Is there any other cool-water tank cleaner that could survive the cavefish and a rafe?

[PurpleSmurf]

At this point the damage is done.

Do not release the clams back into the wild as you may introduce a non-native virus/bacterium/parasite into the water. Which is way worse than illeaglly keeping a few clams in my opinon.

Aside from the difficulties of keeping them, which you can do IMO easily in a species tank. Keep a filter on the tank with cuttlebone in it, but use a sponge with large holes or no mechanical filtration at all. Feed plankton, liquid fry food, microworms, and BBS and I'd think you'd have a good shot at keeping it alive.

Good luck with them.

[Fish-Head Aric]

At this point the damage is done.

Do not release the clams back into the wild as you may introduce a non-native virus/bacterium/parasite into the water. Which is way worse than illeaglly keeping a few clams in my opinon.

Aside from the difficulties of keeping them, which you can do IMO easily in a species tank. Keep a filter on the tank with cuttlebone in it, but use a sponge with large holes or no mechanical filtration at all. Feed plankton, liquid fry food, microworms, and BBS and I'd think you'd have a good shot at keeping it alive.

Good luck with them.

Such NASTY words "The damage is done." Don't feel guilty, just make sure to learn from an honest mistake! Keep the clams and if they're "happy as a clam" chalk it up to great success!

I'd personally like to see some happy clams. They've a unique part in aquatic lifestyles and might benefit you're aquarium if you care to care for them.

[Calico Goat]

At this point the damage is done.

Do not release the clams back into the wild as you may introduce a non-native virus/bacterium/parasite into the water. Which is way worse than illeaglly keeping a few clams in my opinon.

Aside from the difficulties of keeping them, which you can do IMO easily in a species tank. Keep a filter on the tank with cuttlebone in it, but use a sponge with large holes or no mechanical filtration at all. Feed plankton, liquid fry food, microworms, and BBS and I'd think you'd have a good shot at keeping it alive.

Good luck with them.

They're not in the tank, actually, they're still in the jar that I caught them in. (I'm house-sitting, no access to my tanks. That and I wanted to make sure on here that they wouldn't release anything into my tank.) And about all the filtratiuon stuff, the cavefish tank doesn't have mechanical filtration, with much cleaning I'm managing to establish a balance that way...yay for shrimp...I figured a clam or two would help.

[PurpleSmurf]

Such NASTY words "The damage is done." Don't feel guilty, just make sure to learn from an honest mistake! Keep the clams and if they're "happy as a clam" chalk it up to great success!

I'd personally like to see some happy clams. They've a unique part in aquatic lifestyles and might benefit you're aquarium if you care to care for them.What I meant to say :)

[Calico Goat]

I've ten right now, but I'll sort out three or four of the largest and then, once I make sure that the clams aren't carrying anything that'll hurt my fish, into the tank they go. I hear things like shrimp and clams don't affect bioload in the same way fish do, so should I be OK with a small coldwater loach, such as one of the so-called "butterfly pl*cos"?

[Fish-Head Aric]

I posted this link in another message thread. Someone had received a freshwater mussel from a LFS as "freebee" so I dug up a bit about them.

http://news.fws.gov/mussels.html

There are many varieties of these critters in the wild it seems, and some are more threatened than others.

[beblondie]

Just a note here many wild caught clams and snails can be secondary hosts
to a wide variety of parasites that you don't want in a tank-Anne

[PumaWard]

IMVHO, you should not keep any and you should release them if they haven't been in your tanks. There are too many variables, like you don't know if they're protected, and the goverment takes it very seriously if you violate laws.

Fosters and Smith may have a specie that *looks* like the one you have, but it may very well not be... further, it was most likely aquacultured and not taken from the wild.

A better option would be to go to your LFS and have them special order you some clams.

[Calico Goat]

Okay, okay, back they go. ^_^;