Steamer Clams for food&filtration???

[Chrismo]

I just came accross a really detailed yet funny document explaining the Aquaculture of Manilla clams. (they dont make any mention of nitrates). The illustrations kill me though.

Chris

BIG PDF ABOUT MANILLA CLAMS

[OrionN]

Chrismo,
In the article your link above, in the Larval Rearing Methods, Water Change, states:
The water within larval rearing tanks is change regularly,... to remove the larvae from water contaminated with their own metabolic wastes...

100% change every 3 days.

[Chrismo]

This is like a battle eh?!
Really I just want information on this & appreciate your input, I just didnt like the flavour of your first post.

I dont disagree that the clams will produce waste. All living things do. With a Huge bioload of clams & phytoplancton, and no biological filter, there is bound to be build up of ammonia etc. I'm not expecting the clams to uptake ammonia, just Nitrates.

You seemed to imply earlier that only photosynthetic organisms could reduce nitrates. That doesnt make sense to me. Bacteria do it.

Chris

[dragonladylea]

Ok have to put my two cents in since I have been researching nitrate reduction options for my tank, I can say positively that after adding the Cherrystone clams to my tank - my water is as near perfect as possible 0 in Ammonia, less than 5 in nitrates. I have fought high nitrates in my tank due to overfeeding for years, my average range was 60-80ppm. Three days prior to adding the clams (6 in a 55 gal) the nitrates were 50ppm. I now have 2 clams (sold the other 4) which has proved to be sufficient in maintaining my water parameters.

If you do the research you will find references that even the freshwater clams are being used in "cleanup" studies of polluted rivers.

[Mr.Lizard]

As one of the original folks posting/experimenting in this thread, I can say that the little clams reduced the nitrates and cleaned up the water in my experimental tanks rather well- I used littleneck as well as manilas, and both types lived over a year and did quite nicely....
One of the tanks I never did any water changes on- it had an Eibbl Angel, Yellow tang, snails, hermits and nothing but a small Millenium wet/dry with a surface skimming attachment and no carbon. (just the mini wet/dry sipping it's air and an empty carbon cartridge to catch debris which I rinsed occasionally)

I'm a firm believer in giving nature a chance to do the work itself- just point it in the right direction and nature can do the rest. It's been working since the planet formed, after all....I use multiple techniques to achieve water quality including sump/'fuge with deep sand bed, undergravel, wet/dry, mangroves....I think every little bit does it's part to achieve a greater whole. (Uh- or something like that....) With a little nudging (cleaning overflows, water changes, chemical/mechanical filtration, RO/DI top off, etc.) my systems do pretty well- with minimal maintenance.

Not all of this hobby is exact science! And some of the science is still relatively new or as yet undiscovered....Look at how little of the ocean we've explored as yet in our 'modern times', as well as the fact that new species are constantly being discovered! Food for thought!

[dfleary]

Do the clams need a sand bed to dig into, or can they do just as well just sitting on the bottom glass of the sump?

[jlehigh]

So I figured since its been just short of two years since I implemented this nifty lil method for tank filtration and food I should provide folks an update.

I have been keeping 3 different common types of cleaner clams in my tanks (SPS Reef and FO agrressive) for the duration. Though I've never had measurable nitrates to reduce, I have been able to keep the clams alive in my fuges with no substrate and intermixed with Live rock.

I cycle the clams as food with much more regularity now because the fish LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I typically buy 3lbs per month. After each purchase I let the clams sit in a bucket of freshly made Salt water mixed using IO. By the next morning the clams have cycled their systems (poohs and whatnot) and I add them to the tank.

Come feeding time I either pry them open or freeze them overnight prior to fedding them to the fish.

Picky Angels eat these readily, puffers wear down their beaks on the shells and pebbletooth Morays grab them and take them to their den.. It's really turned out to be a terrific and fun way to feed and filter the tanks.

I have lost a few steamers over the months but they were typically on their way out directly from the store..

Yes, all things that eat -> poop, but bear in mind one of the things clams filter from the water column is detritus, in addition to other living things. The other filter feeders in the Reef tank such as my yellow-cuc's have been thriving and dividing, so I do not believe the living beneficial life in the water column is being depleted.

Don't replace a skimmer with clams, but clams have been allot of fun to incoporate into reefkeeping for me.

[dfleary]

Jlehigh,

Thanks very much for the update. I just bought a dozen myself, and have them laying in my sump. Question, though. When you say they're "intermixed with live rock," how do you do that? Do you have a certain position you have to place them in, or do you just throw them on top of the live rock and let them get comfortable themselves?

[dfleary]

mike4271,

Love the Dalek avatar. I've been a Dr. Who fan since I was 14 (and I'm more than 3X that age now...).

[RedSonja]

Okay so since I'm the one that resurrected the thread, I figure I'll update on my own experiment. Of the 13 clams (I got a baker's dozen, one freebie ) I have lost 3. Two were in a 10g quarantine that wasn't completely cycled, one was in the 'fuge of our 75g reef. The 6 in the sump of our 100g stock tank that is holding LR for our just-this-week delivered 300g are still alive and happily filtering on a barebottom rubbermaid sump. I put three in unheated 10g food culture tanks and they are the happiest of all, so I'm sure the higher temps of tropical tanks can be a stressor on 'em.

I haven't tested nitrates lately but I plan to either today or tomorrow and will post the results when I do.

-Sonja

[jlehigh]

dfleary,

Intermixed with LR translation: Dumped clams into my fuge with smaller tonga branch rock. No intentional placement.

[dfleary]

Ok; thanks for the clarification.

[dfleary]

How do you open a clam, by the way? I tried a regular kitchen knife - didn't work, and I was afraid of stabbing myself. So I went out to the garage and grabbed the hammer - worked, but didn't get the effect I was hoping for (read: shell in more than 5 pieces).

[Chrismo]

Redsonja: Great - lets see some data! I keep meaing to test, but I've only had mine in my main display and my nitrates are too low.

Dfleary: I used a hammer to open mine. But I just tapped it on the very edge of the clam. Wha I found worked better, was to use a pair of pliars, and crush a little bit of the opening side of the shell. You have to hold onto the clam tight though, as it will tend to shoot away fromt he pliars.

Chris

[jlehigh]

lol crushing is definately the messy way to go lol.. I either freeze them first then thaw them in RO/DI. As they thaw they open a bit and are easy to open completely. Othewise I use a flat head screw-driver. Interst it all the way to the back and it will release their "clinch" (poor lil guys..).

[Chrismo]

Agreed, my way is messy, and you get some ooze on your hands, but it doesnt kill them if you just break a bit off. That way the fish etc. can take their time eating them throughout the day.

Chris

[Redstratplayer]

So....

What are the best clams for a filter stemers,little neck,minela or mussles.

Bla spelling

[Rivalpc]

its been just short of two years since

Dang its been that long.. i remember first looking into this and trying to implement it. I put some in my 75g in a corner and they were happy for the longest time... then the crabs found them. didnt last long after that.
Since that time i have added a sump/filter to the setup that doesnt include any lighting just media and skimmer filtering. I have always wondered if the clams would be better off "down below" without any lights. I never could really determine if they needed light so o never tried. just kept thrwoing a few in the main tank every now and then

[davester1]

clams etc. are alive if they are closed or will close when you touch them.

[SuperNerd]

Any updates on people's clams?

[kaserpick]

How much do these clams cost?? Can you get them at the grocery store?

[wilvivas]

cool thread, is a flame scallop the same filter feeding family?

[bohlke]

Well I am going to give this a try. I have a small fuge with a DSB that should work well. Has anyone created an estimate to determine the best clams/gallon ratio?

[Chrismo]

No one has really proven that they do any good at all. So how many is a complete guess.
I had 12 in my tank at once. But only 6 of them long term.

Chris

[wasupdavey]

I've read on some other forum and heres what I found what this one person was saying.

Quote
"DmanMay 23rd, 2005, 05:33 PM
OK update time,
Better late than never, so shaddup

Well, I lost one clam pretty much by the fourth day and didn't get it out by the end of the fifth day, my bad.
There is also another clam in there that's been stressed from about the same time frame, so I really pretty much neglected the tank they are in, mostly because i didn't have the time to devote to solving the whole cycle/ammonia/nitrate upkeep thing.
When I say neglected, I mean no water changes or top ups so that also means the salinity crept up from 1.022 to 1.025.
The clams were fed almost every day with IA enriched "L"-strain rotifers and the water tinted slightly with either T-Iso concentrate or IA; whichever I happen to have handy when I thought about it. Also, I added a couple of gill plate damaged, micro A. percularis just for the hell of it earlier this week.
This morning noticed that the stressed clam was still stressed and one of the damaged A. percularis had perished. (it's death was expected one way or another)
Just for the heck of it I decided to test the water, and what I found was pretty much nothing short of spectacular. I figured the nitrates would be at 60 where it was when i started or even worse, perhaps 100+. Well, nope, 0, nada, zilch, zero nitrates, it just about floored me. So now I'm looking to find a way to add a shallow refugium to one of my growout systems to house a hundred of them to test out on a larger system

Dman
:spin:"

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