# freshwater clams ~ do or don't?



## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

I have a 40 gallon bow front tank that has been running for a few months now with lots of plant growth and a few fish. I am making my invert cheat sheet on what I need to add rather than just throwing any old invert in there. =)

I was reading how freshwater clams burrow into the substrate and act like earth worms. They stir stuff up and help release toxins out of the tank. For a beginner this sounds like a great plan! Earthworms are always good in any garden, right?

Why is it I don't see much talk about them? They seem impossible to find in fish stores and even hard on the internet to find. This tells me these little hoovers aren't very popular. 
On my list are cherry shrimp and Amano shrimp along with nerite snails. 

So clams, do you like? How effective are they at stirring up the substrate? I am using flourite.


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

Bugaboo7 said:


> I think if you are looking for something to stir up substrate, Malaysian Trumpet Snails work just as well. The thing about clams (or other similar mollusks), is that they are filter feeders and hence, it can be tricky to feed them in the long run. When I was a child, we kept fresh water clams in an outdoor tank, but the tank water had to get really green before there was any legit food for the clams to sustain themselves naturally.


I was reading about those and from what I read (this is my first planted tank so can only go by what I found in my reading) they can overpopulate and become a plague. For this reason alone I was leery to add them to my tank.


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## Bugaboo7 (Nov 14, 2009)

LOL. I'm sorry, it appears one of the mods removed a legitimate post response. Good thing you quoted it!  MTS can overpopulate a tank, but only if you overfeed. This would apply to almost all snail species. As long as you do not overfeed, there will be no rapid snail population growth. 

Nerites, from what I know, do not burrow under substrate. They are more scraping feeders. They scrape off glass and plants, but do not really get under the substrate.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

Well, freshwater clams (and most saltwater clams as well) are filterfeeders. They eat microscopic particles which they get from the water, not from the soil. In most aquaria there is a big machine removing all edible small particles from the water: the aquarium filter! This means that in most aquaria, there is nothing to eat for clams. They take a long time to starve, anything between weeks and many months. But unless you have an aquarium in which you deliberately either add or cultivate planktonic algae (= green water), clams are slowly starving to death.

Oh, I now see that something similar has already been written ... Will post it anyway.

Over here freshwater clams are sold regularly, both some (presumably!) native species for garden ponds and some tropical species. And in both cases I believe they are rather unsuitable animals to keep. Neverteless, I had a _Corbicula_ in my aquarium once, which took over a year to starve to death.

A better way to stir up the substrate, is to poke with your finger. Especially larger clams are quite capable of uprooting even large and well-established plants.


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

illustrator said:


> Well, freshwater clams (and most saltwater clams as well) are filterfeeders. They eat microscopic particles which they get from the water, not from the soil. In most aquaria there is a big machine removing all edible small particles from the water: the aquarium filter! This means that in most aquaria, there is nothing to eat for clams. They take a long time to starve, anything between weeks and many months. But unless you have an aquarium in which you deliberately either add or cultivate planktonic algae (= green water), clams are slowly starving to death.
> 
> Oh, I now see that something similar has already been written ... Will post it anyway.
> 
> ...


I don't want them to starve  we had a reef tank many years ago with 2 clams. I remember hubby feeding them with a liquid food in a syringe. I didn't read that is how freshwater clams are as well. I figured they were different.

I did more reading on the MTS and enough horror stories that I am going to steer clear of them. Any other critters good at stiring up the bottom? I do have 4 cory cats and they are active little beasties but don't burrow.


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

Since it will fit within the trim and he'll basically have to stand on it to get up there, I don't see how he could easily knock it off.

The 1/4 inch mesh is open enough, he may not even feel safe standing up there.


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

Tugg said:


> Since it will fit within the trim and he'll basically have to stand on it to get up there, I don't see how he could easily knock it off.
> 
> The 1/4 inch mesh is open enough, he may not even feel safe standing up there.


Tugg, I am going to guess this post was meant for my naughty cat post and not for the clams? Cause ..hmm.. if your clams are standing up we got bigger problems...


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## Bugaboo7 (Nov 14, 2009)

^^^^LOL!!!!! I was confused as well.....


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

Oops... Three monitors and too many apps/windows up at once. LOL


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

Tugg said:


> Oops... Three monitors and too many apps/windows up at once. LOL


Ok, good. i was starting to get worried there


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## JG06 (Nov 5, 2006)

I think the bottom line is no, please avoid the clams. None of us who've ever tried to keep them in an aquarium setting have been terribly successful at it. I think you'd do better to spend your money on something else.


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

JG06 said:


> I think the bottom line is no, please avoid the clams. None of us who've ever tried to keep them in an aquarium setting have been terribly successful at it. I think you'd do better to spend your money on something else.


What would you suggest? 
I am not feeling particular warm and fuzzy over the MTS. I am still pretty new to the planted tank and have kids.... they have overfed our few little fish a couple of times.. and they are teenagers!
I hid the fish food but as a whole my family are heavy feeders and I can see the plague coming for us.

I did a water test this morning and the water is pretty close to perfection. I am going to go try some nerite snails if the store has any.

I am curious on living things that help aerate the soil. 
We have a compost pile and worm farm in the garden in our backyard. The difference compost and worm poop makes in a veggie garden is amazing! I use a variation of hydroponics inside my home with our clean air plants. I know what having the soil turned as much as possible will do with land plants so assuming the same of aquarium plants.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The Malayan trumpet snails are really the best option. They actually help with overfeeding problems because they turn the excess food into snail feces which are much less toxic. If you have a population explosion, get some assassin snails. These are slow-reproducing predatory snails which will eat MTS. I have both species in almost all of my tanks, and they maintain a predator-prey balance with no attention from me.

Many species of loaches will also eat snails, and there are many very cool fish in that group.


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## Bugaboo7 (Nov 14, 2009)

I agree that MTS are the best way to go. I was going to recommend Assassins in case you get a population explosion, but I personally have never had the need for Assassins because I love my MTS and I wasn't sure what people did with all those excess empty shells once Assassins came in and killed/devoured the snails? I wasn't sure if it made things messy with empty shells all over the place? 

MTS are constantly stirring the substrate, which prevents gas pockets in your substrate. And they are definitely low maintenance in that they don't require any special treatment.


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

I added 20 nerite snails just now. They are off and running =)
I will add the MTS on my list for next trip. These 20 are experimental... if they live I can cross off snail serial killer as a career choice and get more.


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

nom nom nom nom

hungry little beasties! 
Sorry about the debris in the water ~ I was fiddling around in there before I took the shot


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

oops the photo didn't upload right. here


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

This one is of the evil jerk who is screwing up my plants. He must go...
pretty he may be but total jerk. He is fat because he is a piggie. I feed him a nice floating flake food but does he like it? Nooooo ... he must run around and inhale every sinking wafer I put down for my 4 cory cats!


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## AEWHistory (Jul 6, 2008)

I had a clam in my 125 once and, sadly, it starved as well. I think clams, in concept, are a great idea. The problem is the ratio of clam to water must be huge if 125 G couldn't support one. I think, perhaps, clams are better suited to helping filter ponds where there is a lot of sunlight and natural filtration (rather than mechanical).

Don't be afraid of MTS. Even if they overpopulated there are easy ways to cope. While people always suggest loaches and assassin snails (or spixis in times past) I prefer dunking some par boiled cucumber and collecting out excess numbers. They can be given to friends, sold, put in another aquarium, used as food for puffers, etc. Love your MTS and all will be right in your little aquatic world....


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

The problem with nerites is that all are wild caught and I haven't found any information whatshowever if this "harvesting from nature" is sustainable. I know some sites with European freshwater nerites, and these can be very numerous in optimal circumstances (but they are much smaller than the tropical ones from trade). However, they die out quickly with any kind of habitat deterioration. I don't know how these compare to the species which are in trade.

MTS, on the other hand, are invasive in many parts of the world where aquarists have accidentally (or on purpose) thrown some out. They definately reproduce in aquaria as well. They are all parthenogenetically reproducing females, there is a number of different strains around with subtle variations in shell pattern. There is also a sister-species around in aquaria: _Tarebia granifera_. They say that when put together, _Tarebia_ eventually outcompetes the notmal MTS, but in my aquarium the opposite happened and I gradually lost my _Tarebia_. I guess this depends on the conditions in the aquarium. If I would ever have an aquarium without MTS, I would't mind to try again with _Tarebia_, just because it is a little bit different.


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## Acro (Jul 20, 2012)

illustrator said:


> The problem with nerites is that all are wild caught and I haven't found any information whatshowever if this "harvesting from nature" is sustainable.


That's why I don't keep nerite snails ^ too. 
If I can't breed it and if it's not captive bred/farmed/aqua cultured, I don't keep it.

As for clams, I've always wanted to try a freshwater clam aquarium, using saltwater filter feeder care techniques. I imagine that would be the only way to have them survive.


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## xmpjx (May 31, 2015)

I was scared to get clams, almost did but decided not to. If it died under the substrate it'd be a huge mess (soil capped with gravel) so I didn't. 
I did get bamboo shrimp. If you're looking for a filter feeder, these guys are cool and I haven't found them very "sensitive" or hard to keep. 

As for something to stir up the substrate, the only recommendation I've read/been told is MTS, haven't found any yet but if you can, I would get them.


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## Acro (Jul 20, 2012)

There is also Sphaerium corneum that sounds like it would be a good clam to keep. But it would need a species only tank. Check out this thread on Petshrimp:
http://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2497&p=22925=


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## Badlands54 (Dec 31, 2012)

DOnt they will bury them self in the substrate die and cause huge problems.


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## familytank (Aug 29, 2014)

ok so I have 1 assassin snail and after reading this thread I now would like some MTS. how many would I want to be enough that my assassin wont clean them all out?


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## GilDeMelo (Mar 13, 2016)

I was contemplating this a while back as well but I did some research... Beside the fact that they would starve to death in a typical aquarium from lack of nutrients, it will be hard for you to determine if and when they are dead unless you are checking on each of them daily and, when they die, they will kill your tank pretty quickly. I would steer clear.


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## Selene Vomer (Nov 8, 2016)

Badlands54 said:


> DOnt they will bury them self in the substrate die and cause huge problems.


This was my experience. I had a beauty who lived in my tank for nearly a year. He seemed happy even moved a round a bit; until one day I discovered his large decaying mass had bombed my water column with badness. Don't think I could have hand fed it as it was very shy of any motion nearby. That said I bet there's a way to keep one. I'd start it in a small species tank.
Sounds like you have your solution and are well on the path to a happy tank, all the best!


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