Steamer Clams for food&filtration???

[jlehigh]

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!)