# happy clams



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I got 3 black and white FW clams about five months ago. One of the very rare impulse buys I've ever made. I usually do research first, but they looked really neat and I'd never seen one before, so I gave in to temptation. LFS guy said they ate finely ground flakes. Yeah, right. Oh well.. shortly thereafter research taught me that the LFS was dead wrong about what they eat, and I embarked on a journey to learn how to feed them properly. I'd read they can live for a few months before they will succumb to starvation, so I had a little time to get it right, but I sure didn't want them to die. I already make my cat's food raw, from scratch, so making food for other creatures wasn't too big a stretch. I started out feeding them liquid Invert food, the stuff marine aquarists feed corals, but now I culture algae, in part for the clams, in part for shrimp larvae and in part for fan shrimps. I also mix powdered spirulina in water and feed that, and I found an actual clam diet I can make with various grocery store ingredients I want to try a bit later on as well. I also feed them Golden Pearls, in the 5 - 50 micron size, again, it suits the clams as well as the fan shrimp and larvae too. Even the tiniest of fish fry can eat this stuff.

I use a syringe or a specially made target feeder to squirt food near the clams, but also simply let it circulate. I will sometimes turn off the filter for awhile, but only when I remember to do it.. mostly I forget. But the Golden Pearls are great because they stay suspended in the water column for some time, giving filter feeders a decent shot at getting enough before it all gets filtered out. I usually shoot about 100 ccs of algae culture at one time, every couple of days, and the tank water clears up fairly soon, but not so fast that the filter feeders don't get a good feed.

But it's rather hard to tell if a clam is doing well. There just is not much to see. I've learned that the black and white ones will sometimes bury themselves out of sight.. the littlest one I have does this all the time. The largest one tends to leave his back showing and the middle size one goes about half way down. Once the little one is buried, if I'm lucky, I might see the breathing tube sticking just above the substrate.

If a clam dies while it's buried or half buried, you are not likely to notice unless maybe you get an ammonia spike suddenly. One article suggested measuring the shells, to see if they were growing, but that proved a bit tricky. So I started weighing them now and then, to see if they were gaining, holding steady or, god forbid, losing weight. Last time, a couple of months ago, the largest of the three was 12 grams.. today, he weighed in at 17 grams! A 5 gram gain.. I was amazed. His pals made similar gains, the smallest of them now weighs 7 grams, I think he started out at about 3 grams. 

I also have shark tooth clams. BAs Missisauga had a bunch of them at a fairly high price, but they were not doing well. First time I saw them, right after they arrived, it looked like a third of them were dead. I'd check the tank each time I went in and it looked like over half of them had simply died and I never saw even one dug into the substrate.. it may have been too coarse for them, and I would guess they were starving as well. 

So finally I asked if they'd give me a deal if I bought a few.. they said, yeah, so I got 3. Few days later they put 'em on sale for even less, and I got 3 more, 'cause I kind of felt bad for them. One died a couple days later and he was replaced today, and so far, he's still alive, but has not dug in. I've seen him stick his foot out once.. but his 5 pals are all dug in and I weighed them all today so I can check their progress later on too. Not wildly exciting, but still, I find them interesting creatures. Though not brightly coloured, they have a big 'tooth' on their backs, hence the name, no doubt. Each one is pretty distinctive, so it's not too hard to tell them apart. I made sketches of each tooth, so I'll know which is which next time I weigh them. When they dig in, they leave the tooth and front portion of their shell above ground and open up about an eighth of an inch, to allow their feeding and breathing tube out. It's much easier to see the tube on the shark tooth clams than it is on the black and white ones.

But it was really gratifying to find the first 3 clams I started out with have gained so much weight, because it means they're eating enough not simply to maintain but also to grow. So my research on feeding has paid off. They are not lively pets, but I like oddball critters, so they fit in nicely. 

And even if they wanted to, the shark tooth clams are never going to be able to bury themselves entirely because the 'tooth' on their shell is much too tall, I'd need two more inches of substrate for them to vanish and that is not happening. So unlike my little black and white guys, I'll always know where the toothy guys are, and be able to find them. Once they dig in to suit themselves, they will make interesting focal points.. quite literally.


----------



## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I don't think I'd dare to have them in my tank, I'd constantly check them if they are dead or not. Even apple snails gave me enough grief. I know I can google, is there even a chance to breed them in the tanks?


----------



## splur (May 11, 2011)

Yeah, I'd be scared of keeping clams. Do they smell bad when they die like snails do? Cause that's something I can't do again.


----------



## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Great post, Fishfur! it's cool to see how much you care about some of the less flashy creatures out there and watch their behaviour.
Would love to see some pics.


Yes, clams smell fully disgusting when they die.


----------



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I can't imagine that any deceased water creature would not stink.. I remember my folks found a big channel whelk on the beach in South Carolina. Mom liked shells so they boiled it to get the whelk out. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now I feel bad they killed the whelk just for the shell.. but I was a kid and I doubt any protests would have been heard even if I'd made them. That thing totally stunk out our little efficiency motel room, and it took months before it stopped smelling.. don't think the entire whelk came out even after being cooked. 

I have to admit I was a bit worried about the clams after I got them, before I learned a bit about what to feed them.. but since they are gaining weight, I'm not overly concerned about one of them dying on me.. I do check for them periodically just to make sure they're all still there. Despite being able to dig in, they don't seem to move very far from where I put them. Oddly, the littlest one, which is the only one who usually buries himself out of sight, is the one that moves the most.. he often is four or five inches from where I place his shell.. but still, not that hard to find. I have some video of the clams sticking out their feet and digging in.. but it's slow and tedious at best.. for ten minutes of vid, maybe 35 seconds of action you can really see. Still trying to fix my computer's problem of not being able to 'see' my camera. Once I get it fixed, or get a new computer.. I'll have days worth of pics to post !

Btw, fwiw, I have had two or three big snails die on me, and never even noticed until I was cleaning and found the shells. No smell, no spikes, nothing. Having the ghost and whisker shrimp in the tank means anything that dies vanishes in very short order.. I've lost several fish and never even seen a body.. or even bones. I did see one skull and spinal column.. when I was feeding one night.. figured I'd fish it out next morning, but it had vanished by then. Shrimp are really helpful that way. Though I'd hate to find out the hard way, bet they'd find a dead clam fast too, even if they had to dig a bit for it.

As for breeding, I would doubt it. Though I know FW mussels have young that spend a portion of their larval life stage in the gills of fish. In some cases, a specific fish is required, but I don't know if all of them are that picky. Don't know if clam larvae do the same thing. Mussel larvae are not true parasites, they use the fish to travel, it is thought.. they do not feed on them and when they let go of the gills, do not seem to have done any physical damage. The odd fish is thought to suffocate if too many larvae clog it's gills, but it's only speculation. I'd think if the clams did produce larvae, most would get filtered out, eaten by the fan shrimp or simply die from lack of food. I'd guess, and it's only a guess, that they'd feed on only the smallest of particles, and even in a mature tank, likely there wouldn't be enough to keep them alive long enough to reach the stage they start growing a shell. But maybe I'll find out one day ?


----------

