Steamer Clams for food&filtration???
 

I have had a Copper Band butterfly for a few months now happily depleting my feather duster and pod populations. I received advice to get grocery store steamer type clams as the Copper Band will open them and make a meal of em. Well the copper band is stil far to busy eating my pod population which has gone un-checked until it arrived to pay any attention to the clams... Meanwhile the 4 steamers I added to the tank are happy as clams... Their siphons are extended and they are living on the tank bottom!

I assumed these guys preferred cold temp and would not survive however it's been 3 weeks now and they show no signs of trouble.

Part of me thinks a bucket of these lil cheap twerps would be wonderous filters in my sump. What do you folks know about these lil buggers? Any potential problems? I understand they have not been in the tank all that long but it does raise the question... Could they survive indefinately in a reef tank.

(I was laughing so hard when I saw the first clam blow the air out of it and extend it's pysphon! Talk about surprised!)

Does anyone find this interesting or odd???

Interesting, and tagging.

One last bump then I will claim fame for the missing link in reef filtration ;)

maybe it's ok for now, but what happen if they reproduce and got out of control in your tank ? you might want to think about that

I find this very interesting.Are these freshwater clams?

if they go out of control reproducing then just warm up the steamers and think clam bake!

tagging along and very interested

These are saltwater clams

I am not too concerned with over population for two reasons:

1.)Reproduction = natural food fest
2.)They would be kept in an isolated refugium long term.

I think the biggest risks are a mass die-off causing a crash and the possibility of these clams introducing something bad like toxins/bugs ect. The latter could be remedied by keeping them in a sick tank for a few days until they have cycled all of the gunk out of their system..

I will try to identify the species and it's information

I called Albertson's and they identified the clam as a Manila Clam. This is excellent overview information on the lil guys:

[url]http://staffweb.itsligo.ie/staff/bc...ch/clambiol.htm[/url]

Very versitle lil vaccumms

You know I am more and more beginning to believe these are very viable in refugiums..

Risks:
Large reproduction event
Introduction of Foreign contaminants
Introduction of foreign pests

Benefits:
Indiscriminant filter feeder consuming plankton AND detritus

Risk prevention:
PLacement in a seperate hospital tank until potential contaminants are dispelled

I can be a guinea pig and keep folk apprised of what happens. Unless any additional red flags are raised I will start with a small population in a 20Gal hospital tank and transition them into my refugium after a week or so.

Good luck and thanks for being the guinea pig :)

did you mean this:

[url]http://staffweb.itsligo.ie/staff/bcrowe/bill/styles/frames/research/clambiol.htm[/url]

I think this is very interesting...
One comment... I would not put too many in at once just incase your system can not produce enough food for them.

The reason I am mentioning this is that I would hate for them to die off causing you to think they are not able to live in a tank environment, when actually maybe they can.

I will be following this thread for sure...

Good luck and keep us posted…

Cam

Very valid concerns and actually they apply to everything we keep. We need to understand their needs. Keeping non-photosynthetic clams fed is a valid concern. In a system my size it would take more than one decaying clam to affect the system but none the less I dont want to kill the animals (which is silly because I love to eat'em)

The clams feed on detritus and Phytoplankton. Just as we target feed baby tridanca clams I would expect to feed a clam bed phyto. I guess one way to identify needs would be to look for research around the feeding requirments of these clams in volume and determine wether or not that volume can be met in my tank..

You know it just donned on me that Steve Tyree fosters an all natural filtration method using songes/turnicates ect.. I have the CD on it from his last visit to my local club but I havent had a chance to review it.. I'll do that as I think it will shed some light on the subject.

OK, you have my interest. I posted a question in the new to hobby forum then found this string.

I was thinking the about using, well your basic steamer for fitering since they do a great job. I have been reading alot of stuff saying that they are good but.. there are Concerns about bugs they carry and popoluation explosions. Well most of the reading points to the population explosion wouldn't happen since the conditions would be right for it, and if they did spawn or whatever you call it, it would be a good food source.

The real concern was the bugs and such they may carry and I was wondering how to tell when or if they were clean and free prior to putting them into a reef system, either directly or via refug or sump?

My answer to that would be to follow the same precautions/procedures when introducing anything new. Hitchhikers are a frequent occurence whether it's on rocks, fish, corals ANYTHING!

So just to summarize a few methods I have heard people follow:

-Hold for monitoring in a hospital tank 1-2 weeks
-Fresh Water dip
-Flat worm solution dip
-Hypo salinity treatment

I would also review the process stores follow for harvesting and selling clams.. It seems to me manilla clams are out of the water and even refrigerated before they are sold. I'm not sure how many bugs could survive that treatment.

I will say this: Everything comes from the ocean that is not aquacultured and can potentially carry unwanted pests. The irony is that some of the worst hitchhikers are more prolific and passed at the vendors holding tanks versus directly from the ocean... (red bugs, flat worms ect)

Bump into the lime light.

A quick update. 1 of the original clams was opened and consumed by the copperband in the 3rd week. I went ahead and added another pound of clams into my refugium where all of them are still living with the exception of one which was actually empty to begin with.

What I think I will do is buy 1 lb at a time and transfer 1 or two every few weeks into the display to be food for the copperband..

Sounds good.I'm sure the copperband will be happy.

Very interesting.
Have you noticed any difference in your nitrates, phosphates etc... ?

Cam

I do not have measurable Nitrates and have not tested for phosphates.

There have been some modest changes in the system however I do not believe it has anything to do with the clams. My ro/di canisters need to be replaced and I have seen a few patches of Cyno and 1 small patch of hair-like algae in the tank.

My skimmer is somewhat irregular in it's skimate production, though it seems to be pulling the same it always has. I have increaded my feedings though.. I now feed Spectrum pellets once daily in addition to the mysis and formula one.

My macroalgae growth actually did seem to slow down in the last week and a half..

What kind of acclimation did you use? Going from the icebox in the store to a "hot" 80 degrees or so would be hell for them. I tried this once when I first got started in the hobby and just dumped them in after letting them warm for a couple hours (dumb, I know). They all opened and died within a day. Fortunately my tank was fish only.

Anything special you did?


Tim

Well the first few I just threw in the tank because they were intended as food. The last batch I just floated in the sump for an hr or two to acclimate them to the temp, then dumped them in.

im a little confused. Are the clams you guys getting the ones that are wrapped up at the stores? I thought those were dead. Or are there ways to see if there alive?