Freshwater clams...

[Brinn2397]

I definitely made a mistake getting a clam... i didn’t know much about them before I bought it and now I’m here... can they live in a gravel substrate? And how should they be positioned? I noticed mine tries to bury himself but ends up half in the gravel and half out, I’m not sure if this is normal.

 

[Colin_T]

Your clam is fine and doing what they do. They usually bury most of their shell in the substrate and have the opening above the substrate so they can filter the water.

In aquariums with good filtration you usually have to add some liquid food to the water just above the clam so it can feed. Turn the filter off and wait a minute for the water to calm down and then use an eye dropper or something similar to squirt some liquid invertebrate food so it floats down over the clam. Wait a few minutes and then turn the filter back on. Do this every couple of days.

If you don't have access to a liquid invertebrate food you can make some up from prawn, fish and egg yolk. Use a mortar and pestle or something to mush the prawn and fish up. Hard boil an egg and remove the white and eat it or give it to the dog. Add the yellow yolk to the prawn and fish and push it through a handkerchief and let it collect in a small container of dechlorinated water. Jiggle the handkerchief in the water to let most of the small particles go into the water. Remove the handkerchief and throw the bits of prawn and fish away. Put a lid on the container of prawn, fish and egg yolk and shake it up. Use an eye dropper to suck some out and squirt it into the tank above the clam. Put the remaining liquid in the fridge and use it up in 24 hours or freeze it in small ice cubes. Make a new solution every day or two. You can use prawn, or fish, or egg yolk or any of those items mixed together.

If you get algae on the glass, turn the filter off and use a clean fish sponge to wipe the algae off the glass. Squeeze the sponge out above the clam so it can filter the algae out of the water. Wait a couple of minutes and then turn the filter back on.