Hey I recently found freshwater clams in a river near by... I know, I know you should never bring things from the wild and put it in your fish tank but I did and i wanna know if anyones some info that may be helpful about these things...
Thanx
-Tim
'Bout the only thing I can tell you is that it's a bad time of year to make them into chowder.
I'm curious if they are really clams. Around where I live, you can pull zebra muscles out of the river, but very few actual clams. (Zebra muscles are nuisance. If that's what they are I say toss 'em in the trash and don't think twice about them.) Where about in the world are you? How big are the critters? Any markings? Can you take a picture?
It's hard to know what to tell you unless I know for sure what you're dealing with. (And yes, I went to school for this kind of thing. I'm not just guessing.)
Hello Mick...I just did the same thing myself...lol...and it looks like we have the same type of clam...here's a couple pics of mine...
I've had them in a couple of tanks for a few weeks now and they seem to be doing their thing fairly well so far. I put them in tanks where it woudn't be a great disaster if something come in with them....sort of trying them out before putting any in one of the bigger more important tanks...
I'm sorry I can't give you any more info on them as I am a newbie with these things myself. I had heard they were good filter feeders and when I saw them at the beach of this lake..I could'nt resist bringing some home...
They are a rather interesting and fun to watch little creature actually...lol...for a clam !
i actually just went through this with a fresh water mussle ..i ended up calling my local fish and game commision and found out that the particular specimen i had was not one that was known in that area ...i let them keep the mussle as they explained that they need a constant current ..to filter feed different micro orginisms out of the water and that they eat rotting vegitation and smaller types of bacteria ..i was informed that while they may do well in a tank for a while they usually end up starving to death before your eyes ...i was told i could try to keep it if i wanted and decided against ,,so please keep us posted i would like to know how you make out ..i to felt it would be an awesome addition to a home aquarium!
Yea, those are clams. Clams are fun to watch. Scallops are too. I love Scallops.
Yup, bivalves need a constant supply of phytoplankton or they will starve. That means algae cultures. There are also a few species that are really sensitive to hypoxia (lack of disolved oxygen) and ammonia (what's not senstivie to ammonia???). I just did some quick reading from one of my better text books and it says they're fairly simple to keep so long you're well aerated and have a good supply of algae.
So basically, what judgemax said. Good luck if you keep them. Let's hope they aren't in a reproductive cycle or you could end up with more clams than you bargained for! LOL!
