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does anybody keep fresh water clams? if so, what do you have them in with? i was looking at some and curious as to how they work in the tanks

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

I had 50. They multiplied a little, died alot, and now I have 0. They are interesting when you first add them but then they bury themselves and you never see them again. They are also a bit of a pain. You have to make sure they stay in good water flow because if your tank has low water movement or they wander behind decorations not enough water and therefore food goes past them. They'll end up starving to death within a week if you don't put them back in high flow. Clams will also starve to death if you don't feed messy foods at least once a week. Things like shrimp pellets that get scattered all over the tank work great for them but things like hikari or new life spectrum pellets which are eaten whole by the fish won't provide enough small particles. On top of that you can't treat the tank with any medicine unless you remove the clams. Even melafix will kill them. They do stir the substrate some and help filter small particles out of your water that would create nitrates so if your tank is already setup to suit them they might be a good addition. Otherwise they can be alot of work and you could end up target feeding them with a syring every week.

For fish compatibility they are mostly ignored by any fish except loaches. Loaches will hover above the substrate waiting for a clam to open and then quickly attack it. Eventually you will have a tank of empty clam shells the loaches will be shoving around. Some larger cichlids might also manage to pull them out of the substrate and break them open. Mine were in with tetras, rainbowfish, cories, farlowella, plecos, otos, and gouramis. Briefly the yoyo loaches were in the tank but got banished to the 29g when they continually ate my clams and applesnails.

cool. the tank i'm thinking to add them in doesnt have bottom water flow yet. but i'm goign to be changing that anyway soon. but i'm going to setup a tank with a jack dempsey and a firemouth. or possibly just a pair of firemouths, i'm not sure yet. but no loaches will be there.

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Do you plan on putting any bottom feeders other than the clams?

Inky

only thing i was thinking with the tank was a pleco. but if they clams will do their job. no i wont be.

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction