# Freshwater mussels



## yannzgob (Jul 23, 2009)

Hey guys,

I was washing mussels yesterdays evening for dinner and something occuredto me: it would be great to have freshwater mussels in my aquarium!! Has anyone ever kept some? Are they tough to keep?

Yann


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I've never kept them myself, but they are filter feeders and I have heard they are difficult to keep alive since they require floating algae to live.

You can grind up some peas in a blender and run the liquid through a coffee filter and use the resulting liquid to feed them a few times a day.


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

I'd imagine most SW filter feeder foods would be a good place to start as well.

It's probably worth noting that FW mussels will burrow, especially if a bunch of crap gets kicked up:
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/4/4/0/5/p244055_index.html

-Philosophos


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## yannzgob (Jul 23, 2009)

Very interesting. So, basically, if I place one or two of them, say, in a corner opposite to any filtration device's returning water jet and ensure the water contains enough food particles for them, they might not be such a trouble to keep, so long as the food does remain in the water column. With a NPT running filter-less during day-time, that wouldn't be very difficult I guess... I'm willing to try. Just gotta find some of those critters, now 

Yann


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

I'd imagine they wouldn't be the worlds most difficult thing to keep. SW tanks commonly keep similar organisms without too much trouble. In some cases, the trick is actually getting rid of these guys in the case of the zebra mussel.

-Philosophos


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## geeks_15 (Dec 9, 2006)

My experience has been that they bury themselves in the substrate, die, and soil the water.


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## bpmox (Jan 6, 2007)

It's my understand that they slowly starve to death. They may live for a year or two, but it's hard to reproduce all of their needs within an aquarium environment. Remember that some mussels would otherwise have a very long lifespan. Mussels are an indicator species and are often the first to die out in an ecosystem that becomes unbalanced. The mussels you often see for sale are Asian Clams, an invasive species that are very hardy. They will live in an aquarium for quite a long time, but don't expect to see them as they do borrow. I'm not sure if they will ever thrive in an aquarium however.


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## armedbiggiet (May 6, 2006)

starve to death that is very possible as this is how Maryland state clean up the bay by introduce these filter feeders. Chesapeak bay was like a fish tank w/ green water.


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