There are a lot of freshwater clams in the lakes and creeks around my house and was wondering if anyone here has ever tried keeping them and if so was it difficult. Thanks.
Freshwater Clams
- Thread starter tjtyates84
- Start date
I've bought clams before. They died. I also heard they have a high risk of having parasites? Esp. if they are coming out of the wild.
Problem is you are putting an organism that wants to pull large quantities of water through its system to extract the food that it needs to survive into a system where, due to our regular water changes and tank maintenance, you just don't have the food that it needs to survive.
Most freshwater clam stories go something like "I put them in, they burried themselves, saw a bit of one one time, then it died." This story can take from 1-6 months depending on tank size and number of clams added.
Just never seems to end well.
Most freshwater clam stories go something like "I put them in, they burried themselves, saw a bit of one one time, then it died." This story can take from 1-6 months depending on tank size and number of clams added.
Just never seems to end well.
I found one at a lake. I have it in a 10gal tank with 4 fish neon sized, a snail colony like no other, and several live plants.
It is doing well and since I have limited the amount of gravel depth I can always follow the trail to know about where it is. I have a 30gal tank of 4 very large gold fish. I am mixing the water so the clam has as mush food as possible. The gold fish are very dirty and the water is perfect for feeding the clam naturally. I can say I would need to add a lot of extra food to the tank for the snails and clam. The extra water from the gold fish allows my snails, shrimp, clam to have a variety of foods an not compete as much. It also helps to clean my goldfish tank water. Clams ae very efficient that way. Essentially, put two smaller clams (1 to 1.5in shell), in a 20gal and try to over feed and maximize the population of smaller, dirty, nonagressive fish. Keep your gravel no deeper than 1.5 times the clam height, throw in a couple of snails, plants, and a shrimp then.....GO! You can watch and follow them. When they feel sage they come up and hang out and just filter away. Better than a whisper 5-15 on a ten gallon tank!
It is doing well and since I have limited the amount of gravel depth I can always follow the trail to know about where it is. I have a 30gal tank of 4 very large gold fish. I am mixing the water so the clam has as mush food as possible. The gold fish are very dirty and the water is perfect for feeding the clam naturally. I can say I would need to add a lot of extra food to the tank for the snails and clam. The extra water from the gold fish allows my snails, shrimp, clam to have a variety of foods an not compete as much. It also helps to clean my goldfish tank water. Clams ae very efficient that way. Essentially, put two smaller clams (1 to 1.5in shell), in a 20gal and try to over feed and maximize the population of smaller, dirty, nonagressive fish. Keep your gravel no deeper than 1.5 times the clam height, throw in a couple of snails, plants, and a shrimp then.....GO! You can watch and follow them. When they feel sage they come up and hang out and just filter away. Better than a whisper 5-15 on a ten gallon tank!