Benifits of freshwater mussels?

[isaac newton]

Here in Washington state there seems to be a abundance of freshwater mussels.. Any benifits to having them in the tank?. I put in one but it died 5 months later and the crabs ate it dry.. Any causes of death?:confused:

[VoodooChild]

There could be a few things. One is they need cool water. Room temperature is probably ok, but it depends on the species of bivalve. That would take awhile to kill it, so that could be. The reason he probably did die though is that they're all filter feeders, and unless you were putting in baby artemia or some form of FW snow he probably starved to death, which also would take a while. It's probably a combo of the two.

[thom336]

Originally posted by isaac newton
Benifits of freshwater mussels?

means you can carry out water changes quicker...he he.

(ok, if you didnt get the joke...muscles, carrying buckets of water....).

[Hebdizzle]

I live in Michigan and practically in every lake there are MILLIONS of zebra mussels. They are sharp if you step on them.

An adult zebra mussel can filter 1 L of water a day..... needless to say the lakes around here have been cleaner than ever.

I would not reccomend putting them in your fishtank, they have all type of algae growths on them and multiply VERY quickly.

aaron