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hey does any body keep fresh water mussels? my missus father suggested we add some to the aquarium for their filtering capacity- which we did. i have just been doing some research that suggests they could be harmful to the fish due to there reproductive cycle, i was just wandering if anybody has had any problems with them?

cheers dan

I had some for a while, never had any issue with them. I heard the same stuff but figured that it was worth a go anyway.
We did have more problem with shell erosion with the mussels than the snails though, so make sure your water is right for them.

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Back in February or maybe March 2007 I got 2 different species of them. I think one of them is mussels, the other one might have been a clam/scallop due to the shape of its shell. Unfortunately the clam/scallop died not too long after as the other ones did too at the pet shop (not a LFS, they also sold dogs, cats, birds so on). As for the mussel, that was more expensive, mine is still alive to date.

Some times I see it sticks out its tongue? if it wants to change its position. Otherwise it opens up its shell partially and I guess does filter feeding. I have no clue what species it is though. The shell is kind of golden color, I'm guessing it might be from asia.

It won't impact the cleanliness or water quality of your aquarium. They won't filter enough to make any difference so you'll still have to rely on mechanical filtration and water changes. If you want cleaner water your better off adding more filtration instead.

If you just want them cause they are interesting then they generally don't cause any harm. Some will cause cysts on the fish so don't just go out collecting some from native waters. Usually the ones sold in fish stores are golden clams or other safe species. They can be a pain to keep alive though. They don't move around to get food so will starve to death if there isn't enough water movement or your tank is too clean for them. Some people mix up very finely crushed fish foods with water or liquid marine invertebrate foods and squirt around the clams to feed them. They are also sensitive to all medications. Even melafix killed mine. They were interesting but a pain so I don't plan to ever keep them again.

In their natural environment they are continually flushed by the water. Some actually bury them selves into the river beds. The only other thing I know about them they taste muddy and must be purged for several days to clean them out.
Now saying all that they must clean a little of the water but certainly nowhere near the amount required to clean a tank also they must have very healthy water to survive.

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cool thanks for that- thats eased my worrys about spores hunting down my precious fish and taking them out left right and centre!! as for the filtering capacity that was all hypothetical! the good old 305s on the case so dont worry about that- they re are merely his little hypothetical helpers!

i ve noticed they seem to release tiny tiny specks of what i presume to be filtered material that pop out their top and have witnessed one of my black widows catching and eating them! took a while to work out what was going on as the specks were so tiny i could only catch them at the right angle of light!

thanks for the help

i dont have any, i seen some though.

i currently have golden fw clams, and so far so good. They seem to do fine stucking in water with the tube and i thaught they would help clean the water but i guess not. But anyway, i havent had any problems with upkeep, so i imagine that mussels must be very similar.