Will clams kill my tank?
- Thread starter Dexmaster
- Start date
Why would you want them? You will never see them. They like to bury themselves in the gravel, so will uproot all your plants. And when they die, the first you'll know of it is when everything else in the tank is dead. Not good things for a fish tank, IMO...
^ pretty much agree - I heard of 'em and also thought that they would be good for preventing anaerobic pockets from forming in my substrate, but it would be tough to tell if they died and that could be a problem (What's that smell? Oh - let me go through ALL of my sand to see if a clam died.).
Also, being filter feeders, they could be tough to keep alive anyway.
Also, being filter feeders, they could be tough to keep alive anyway.
I have 6, they live well in my tank have been there for months, havent up rooted any of my plants, and live well in the sand with my MTS.
uh....i had 4. they never uprooted anything, and a couple died.. maybe i just had an excellent bacterial biofilter, but i never even saw a spike in numbers.
they don't kill everything in the tank when they die, either.
they don't kill everything in the tank when they die, either.
IMO, clams aren't a good idea for the typical aquarium.
They can be tough to feed (immobile filter-feeders with no alternative feeding method), they can be killed easily (even shrimp and snails could kill one), they generally don't move at all (very boring, and won't prevent anaerobic pockets), and they can release a lot of ammonia upon death.
They can be tough to feed (immobile filter-feeders with no alternative feeding method), they can be killed easily (even shrimp and snails could kill one), they generally don't move at all (very boring, and won't prevent anaerobic pockets), and they can release a lot of ammonia upon death.
they don't 'release' ammonia. ammonia is a natural byproduct of their decomposition, which is a little harder to notice if you can't see their corpses.
Wow! A range of opinions. Perhaps we need a poll on this question..? All I can say is that in my long-past days of aquaria/pond maintenance, the very worst experiences of my whole life involved dead clams, the smell of which is not pleasant – and I am severely understating things here!!!
Another point is, it depends on what you keep in your tank. I had clams die and my crayfish ate them before there was a problem. BTW, have you ever smelled large dead apple snails? To me, they by far was the worst smelling dead aquatic creature.