Fw Clam? Or Anything Suitable - Filter Feeders

saz326 · Mar 31, 2009

Morning.

I have always had floating particles in my tank as I have fish that are forever kicking up substrate. Rather than putting a fine filter sponge in my filter, I would like to know if I can take the opertunity to house any filter feeders like fan shrimp or freshwater clams that could co-exist with my fish.

Tank is 200 litres, although I have a substrate bank and wood so around 190 litres.

Fish are:
Pair of spawning cockatoo dwarf cichlids
Pair of keyhole cichlids
5 silver tipped tetra
7 black phantom tetra
3 black skirt tetra
2 red robin gourami
1 Bristlenose
6 corydora (mixed)

(edit - forgot I had a list on my sig! bit old tho)

Water is hard, with injected CO2. Tank is well planted. Light on 12 hours a day.

substrate is black gravel. 2 to 4 mm sized.

I would like a fan shrimp so that I could watch its actions, but I am sure my fish would start to munch on it. Could clams be a way forward?

Mods: Already posted this in "other pets" invertebrate froggy section as couldnt think where it should go. Please delete thread from there if deemed suitable. Thanks.

lyotim88 · Mar 31, 2009

i have 3 pygmy clams and they're the most boring things to ever live. They're nothing like saltwater clams if that's what you're after. I'm sure they do a good job filter feeding though

Spishkey · Mar 31, 2009

imo clams are very hard to keep - if you see them out and about i believe that means they are dying? usually through starvation

the best thing to remove particles in your water is basic white filter wool - shove some in your filter and see the difference!

saz326 · Mar 31, 2009

lyotim88 said:
i have 3 pygmy clams and they're the most boring things to ever live. They're nothing like saltwater clams if that's what you're after. I'm sure they do a good job filter feeding though

Oh i bet! Im just thinking of creating a more natural scene and using the fine particles in my water.

Spishkey said:
imo clams are very hard to keep - if you see them out and about i believe that means they are dying? usually through starvation

I believe they tend to hide in the substrate during the day and feed at night. I guess this is why if you see them during the day they must be getting hungry and starving. I am looking at getting LED lights for evening viewing though. These should let clams come out to feed in the evening so i would see them open and feeding - Boring it may be.

The most recent thing i added to my aquarium was some leaves - and this made so many natural behaviours come out in the fish (my keyhole cichlids actually lift the leaves up so they can see if anything tasty is underneath them!), so im hoping that some kind of filter feeder could be added, making the setting more natural.

(not that my selection of fish from all over the world are exactly natural companions!)

drobbyb · Mar 31, 2009

There was a thread a few weeks back on freshwater clams and it was pretty much agreed that they are bad for a fish tank in that they usually starve to death. I would think it kinda cruel to subject them to that.

lyotim88 · Mar 31, 2009

if your gravel is mature and deep enough they'll live. My have been alive for months and they just stay buried, i usually find them attached to plant roots

TylerFerretLord · Mar 31, 2009

My have been alive for months

That says nothing on if they're doing well. It can take several months for them to starve to death(even longer if they have a small food source), and it's not like you can judge their health from their appearance so you won't know if they're doing badly or not until it's too late to do anything.

These are animals that can live for a very long time in the wild, so if they die on you you've done something wrong.

rdd1952 · Mar 31, 2009

From my understanding, FW clams need green water in order to feed on the algae in the water. Without it, they will soon die, most likely while buried in the sand, causing a potential major ammonia spike as they break down. Good posts (#14, 18 & 20) by nmonks in the thread below.

http

/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=169129

drobbyb · Mar 31, 2009

rdd1952 said:
From my understanding, FW clams need green water in order to feed on the algae in the water. Without it, they will soon die, most likely while buried in the sand, causing a potential major ammonia spike as they break down. Good posts (#14, 18 & 20) by nmonks in the thread below.

<a href="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=169129" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=169129</a>

That's the thread. Thank you rdd!

saz326 · Apr 1, 2009

Thanks for the thread details, Must have missed that one.

Shall be giving it a miss after reading that. Looks more trouble than its worth.

Shall be doing a bit more research about fan shrimp - be prepared to see a thread in a week or two!