cleaner clam

suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
okay so I am planning on stopping off at the supermarket and picking up some cleaner clams and I have a couple of questions...
(1)Do I need to drip them?
(2)I read on another post that I should put them into a bowl of tankwater and let them burp... so does that mean wait for bubbles to come from them?
(3)How many should I have for 55g, I am thinking 4
Thank you, thank you!!
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
If you mean drip acclimate, no, you don't have to do that.
"Burping" is when they spit out the water they have been holding in.
I have a dozen or so in my 75.
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
ok so i got 4 of them... i was a little shocked that they weren't in water at the supermarket, they were just in a fridge. Anyway, i watched one "burp" so I put him down in my sandbed and with 1 min it had 3 hermits crawling all over it so I removed it, what were the hermit doing, were they going to kill it or is this thing already dead!?
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by suzi1780
okay so maybe the hermits just want to be friends i hope


lol All my cleaners buried themselves fairly quickly. I've had a couple die and they come up from the sand, open up and the cleaning crew has a feast!
 
vanquish

vanquish

Member
I have two littlenecks, they are going great in my 20! They do a great job eating what my corals do not. Thinking of pitching the skimmer all together (piece of junk any way)
 
M

mopardwh

Guest
I got 2 from this site and one of them died after several months. The other one seems to be doing fine. When I clean the sand and pull it up, he buries himself pretty quickly. Out of water from the supermarket? That sounds crazy!
 
bowser220

bowser220

Member
Can you just go to to the supermarket and get cleaner clams? How expensive? Good for Nitrates?!? What supermarket?
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by MOPARDWH
I got 2 from this site and one of them died after several months. The other one seems to be doing fine. When I clean the sand and pull it up, he buries himself pretty quickly. Out of water from the supermarket? That sounds crazy!

Much, much cheaper than buying them from an lfs.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by bowser220
Can you just go to to the supermarket and get cleaner clams? How expensive? Good for Nitrates?!? What supermarket?

You can go to the seafood counter and get cherry clams. They are good for nitrates. Very inexpensive.
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
I got mine from Harris Teeter, but any store that sells seafood should sell them. Mine were .59 cents each, Harris Teeter is a litte $$ I think a lot of people find them for .30 cents. They were on ice with a little sign that says "cherry stone clams" I am sure they thought I was crazy when I asked for 4 small ones.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by suzi1780
I got mine from Harris Teeter, but any store that sells seafood should sell them. Mine were .59 cents each, Harris Teeter is a litte $$ I think a lot of people find them for .30 cents. They were on ice with a little sign that says "cherry stone clams" I am sure they thought I was crazy when I asked for 4 small ones.

Once I tried to explain to the woman working at the seafood counter that I wanted 2 for my seahorse tank and she looked at me like I sprouted another head. :jumping:
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
Originally Posted by alyssia
Once I tried to explain to the woman working at the seafood counter that I wanted 2 for my seahorse tank and she looked at me like I sprouted another head. :jumping:
hahahaha i didn't try and explain, i can only imagne what they would have thought!
 
vanquish

vanquish

Member
Haha yea, I got mine at the Giant in Vienna, VA for 35 cents each. I looked at the guy behind the seafood counter and say, “I have an unusual request, I’d like two littleneck clams please.” I was expecting to have to go through the awkwardness of explaining why I was wasting his time by buying only two clams which probably cost less than two carrots, but there were no questions—he just smiled and handed them to me. They’ve done great though, no problems at all. They were on ice too, not in water. I think this is because the ice lowers their metabolism to near zero to keep them fresh, and as long as they don’t freeze they’ll stay alive. When I temp acclimated them, they perked right up and they were burrowing and filtering in no time!
 
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