# living filter ? (freshwater clams)



## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

searches on the net for "freshwater living filter" bring up mussels and clams, pointing out how much water they go through and filter.

anyone tried this in a tank ?


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Yes, it has been tried. They are greatly over rated as aquarium filters, and when they die they are hidden under the substrate but your nose sure knows! 

Keep one if you want a 'pet rock' and do not lose track of it.


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## Patriot100% (Nov 12, 2011)

To keep them alive you have to have some sort of food particles in the water just as in the real world.


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

i've heard lots of conflicting info about freshwater clams.
"they will starve to death", "if they die in your substrate, your screwed", "they come to the surface when they die".

i previously gave up on the idea when i came across the "slowly starve to death" article on the net.

i'm questioning that now.

it makes sense that they'd die wherever they are, not rise to the surface. i could make guesses that Malaysian trumpet snails would find them and deal with it (welcome to assumptions)

i'll spell out Malaysian trumpet snails because MTS is also mineralized top soil 

back to the clams though, a quick search isn't giving me much i'm taking seriously at the moment (k, only 5 min. before work finished), so i'll ask and continue searching


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## Sake (Apr 20, 2012)

I've had 1 in my 29 gallon and 2 in my 10 gallon for a year. Both tanks were mature, that's the secret I think. They are filter feeders, people keep filter feeder shrimps in their tanks, so why not clams? Granted 1 died in my 29 gallon shortly after I put it in, but the ghost shrimp dug it up and ate it. The other one I see all the time the tip of it's shell sticking up, and I also see it feeding the shell opens up and it pops out just a hair.


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## Woody0229 (Oct 29, 2012)

Gave these a shot in my 29g had a decent luck with them for a couple months. I think they are pretty sensitive to waternquality.


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

i might as i look at my tank and how much junk the water filter gets in it's sponge, ... i'm thinking of skipping it's cleaning ability and just have it rough the water up instead of clean it so more stuff is suspended, ... i'm on the fence about what to actually do if i get some clams in my tank, i don't want them to starve , ... i'll find a way 

as someone had mentioned (don't remember who  )they may be sold as water filters, but are not very good ones, ... if that's the case i'll be happier that they won't starve.


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

info on freshwater clams available on the net is really disappointing.

too much conjecture and hearsay, not enough experiences


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

When I got started in the aquarium hobby a few generations ago, I had very little money to spend. But using Dr, Innes books as a guide, I figured that freshwater mussels might help with my cloudy and/or green water problem.

I went to a nearby pond and caught a mussel and put it in my 20 gallon tank. Within a few days the cloudiness was gone, and I returned the mussel to the pond, maybe a little heavier.  I did this two or three times.

Mussels are not meant to live in a tropical aquarium, but they are great for doing a tuneup.

Good luck!

Bill


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

a few days to clear a greenwater problem, ... not calling diana down who said clams are over-rated as water filter feeders, ... but that's impressive

unfortunately the other side of what they say clams are good for in tanks is for filtering, ... the same term given to your water filter for removing most everything you don't want in there.

which would support diana's statement that they are over-rated because they're doing what they actually do instead of what we claim they're capable of.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

Mussels are much better filterers than are mechanical filters. I don't know why, but I suspect that they use a different method of removing "stuff" from the water than moving it through filtering material. Absorption, maybe?

One drawback to using them in an aquarium is that they, or the kind I used, anyway, are constantly moving through the substrate, uprooting plants as they go. I learned to confine them to a box where they could move around to their hearts' content while still doing what I wanted them to do. They didn't know the difference, and they probably got the best meals of their lives.

Bill


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

i'm getting a lot of that, if we can find a natural way, some critter that fills a particular niche, it beats us spending hundreds of dollars, and does a better job.

clams so much so they'll work themselves out of a job.

differences i've come across between freshwater clams and mussels, mussels are reported to have a parasitic larval stage where they infect the gills of fish, where clams do not. due to so little being written/understood about either in the hobby, and the hobby writing so often about them, ... they flood searches 

with the problems they have about starving it's hard to get an idea how big a tank is big enough, ... and once they hit maturity, suddenly what was 1 is now a lot more (huge guess as i don't know about their sexual & reproductive lives), but maturity apparently takes years.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

I'm not sure that mussles should be considered a long-term member of a tropical aquarium community.
Rather, they should be brought in to meet a particular need and released when that has been accomplished.

If the cloudy water recurs, the cause should be determined and corrected. Mussles are just a bandage.

Of course, rather than releasing the mussel, one could just eat it. Here in fine restaurants they sell for $.25 apiece.

Bill


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

for everything i've come across, i'd agree


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