Cleaner Clams at the Superstore

alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
I have had numerous cleaner clams and they have ALL come up out of the sand when they died. They then open up and if I don't remove them right away the clean up crew takes care of them very quickly. I wouldn't advise putting one in a fuge though if you don't have a clean up crew.
 
appaloosa1

appaloosa1

Member
My mom freaked out when I brought the clam home. She said I was going to get deathly sick from putting my had in the same water as one. I don't know how that works since I swim in the ocean, even though I am very allergic to shell fish. SO he's going to go live at my boyfriends house.
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
1. They seem to process nitrates. When I have them in the tank nitrates are lower.
2. They are ugly but they burry themselves and you cant see them.
3. They have all surfaced when they died. I knew they were on there way out cuz they surfaced. They also did open up wide.
4. Your cleanup crew should have a clam feast. My hermits and peppermint all fought over the scraps. I even had a big bristle worm take his part.
5. If you aren't going to do a walk-around your tank daily and test weekly then your in the wrong hobby.
6. Try it its only a little clam.
 
sharkbait9

sharkbait9

Active Member
Originally Posted by ninjamini
1. They seem to process nitrates. When I have them in the tank nitrates are lower.
2. They are ugly but they burry themselves and you cant see them.
3. They have all surfaced when they died. I knew they were on there way out cuz they surfaced. They also did open up wide.
4. Your cleanup crew should have a clam feast. My hermits and peppermint all fought over the scraps. I even had a big bristle worm take his part.
5. If you aren't going to do a walk-around your tank daily and test weekly then your in the wrong hobby.
6. Try it its only a little clam.
THANK YOU NUFF SAID
 
sharkbait9

sharkbait9

Active Member
Originally Posted by Appaloosa1
My mom freaked out when I brought the clam home. She said I was going to get deathly sick from putting my had in the same water as one. I don't know how that works since I swim in the ocean, even though I am very allergic to shell fish. SO he's going to go live at my boyfriends house.
YEAH.............. wait........what
 
M

moatdaddy

Guest
great feedback everyone, is there a max or minimum amount you want to you use. and what do oysters do?
 
clown123

clown123

Active Member
how do u tell if there alive i have one in my 20g got it from a friend bc he didnt want it ne more he had it in a trash can(with water) for about a month! would it start smelling if dead all i have to do is freeze it and go for some striped bass lol
 
ctgretzky9

ctgretzky9

Member
Originally Posted by sharkbait9
and that fine not everyone is going to do what some other people do. Like i said it works for me and some others. none of my clams are buried to the point that i can't see them. what on earth are you talking about how you can't see how to target feed a filter feeder? my syring is pointed at the clams opening and i blow a little micro vert, marine snow and cyclop eez over the opening hence target feeding. it maybe a waste of time for you, not me i enjoy taking care of my tank, its not much time but it's a healthy way for me to use up some time, other times, at the rang blowing off rounds or under water scuba diving. Salt water fish is a hobby that i tend to spend more time on so i can "waste" more time.

That is fine for you. I am not being argumentive, just stating the experiences I have had and others have had, as well as some articles I have read about doing things like this-the quick fixes. This is a forum to post opinions, mine just happens to be I do not like using the clams, nor do the people I know in the hobby, of which I know a great many.
I just dont see "spot feeding clams" as something I would want to do lol...I have enough coral and critters to spot feed.
Regardless of peoples experiences on the board here, mine and people I know have had ammonia spikes from using clams when they have died. I have not had any deaths from it, but it is just another thign to worry about. Frankly, I find it WAY easier to just do normal maintenance to keep trates down.
Never said the hobby itself is a waste of time, I spend a great deal of time on my tank, more than I should as a father of 3
:thinking:
 
sharkbait9

sharkbait9

Active Member
Originally Posted by ctgretzky9
That is fine for you. I am not being argumentive, just stating the experiences I have had and others have had, as well as some articles I have read about doing things like this-the quick fixes. This is a forum to post opinions, mine just happens to be I do not like using the clams, nor do the people I know in the hobby, of which I know a great many.
I just dont see "spot feeding clams" as something I would want to do lol...I have enough coral and critters to spot feed.
Regardless of peoples experiences on the board here, mine and people I know have had ammonia spikes from using clams when they have died. I have not had any deaths from it, but it is just another thign to worry about. Frankly, I find it WAY easier to just do normal maintenance to keep trates down.
Never said the hobby itself is a waste of time, I spend a great deal of time on my tank, more than I should as a father of 3
:thinking:

True, I’m told all the time by my fiancé "what are you going to do when you have kids? tell them to sit in place while daddy plays with his fish" so i can understand where you come from on the point. I hope I did not come over argumentative on this thread, that's not my intentions. I was just trying to state how my clams have lowered my traits to an unreadable amount. Your right again also in a sense that I really should have put a disclaimer that by using clams is not a quick fix, nothing is saltwater is a quick fix. You should always find the seat of the problem, not just throw a band aid on the problem and hope it goes away. I have heard people say that clams messed up the tank water, but after talking its always been at least 95 percent of the time an uninformed keeper not knowing the proper keeping techniques of clams. Secondly especially in a reef tank if you can’t keep alive a piss clam or cherry stone don’t even humor the idea of getting a crocea clam or any other type of show clam, that’s just B M W (big money wasted). This is a message board for all to share their experiences good, bad or indifferent and if some people can own up to a bad experience cause of pride well then so be it, but if I have or do something that works and the topic comes up that I have some experience with, good bad or indifferent I’ll share. I did take your original post a little defensively, I think that’s why I took the thread so personally, cause the clams work for me.
 
ctgretzky9

ctgretzky9

Member
Originally Posted by sharkbait9
True, I’m told all the time by my fiancé "what are you going to do when you have kids? tell them to sit in place while daddy plays with his fish" so i can understand where you come from on the point. I hope I did not come over argumentative on this thread, that's not my intentions. I was just trying to state how my clams have lowered my traits to an unreadable amount. Your right again also in a sense that I really should have put a disclaimer that by using clams is not a quick fix, nothing is saltwater is a quick fix. You should always find the seat of the problem, not just throw a band aid on the problem and hope it goes away. I have heard people say that clams messed up the tank water, but after talking its always been at least 95 percent of the time an uninformed keeper not knowing the proper keeping techniques of clams. Secondly especially in a reef tank if you can’t keep alive a piss clam or cherry stone don’t even humor the idea of getting a crocea clam or any other type of show clam, that’s just B M W (big money wasted). This is a message board for all to share their experiences good, bad or indifferent and if some people can own up to a bad experience cause of pride well then so be it, but if I have or do something that works and the topic comes up that I have some experience with, good bad or indifferent I’ll share. I did take your original post a little defensively, I think that’s why I took the thread so personally, cause the clams work for me.
Thats fair enough, and appreciate the candor.
They did not work for me, personally, i think due to the fact they couldnt survive the "reef" sg of 1.025, higher pH, warmer temps etc, and I wasnt going to spot feed. They may also have been already near deaths door for all I know. I put 4 in and none made it, and caused a spike that made my gorgonia, galaxia, frogspawn, and some of the other sps's shriveled up for a while. None of the fish were affected as I could see.
I only saw 2 up front, I had to find the other 2, and they ended up behind some rockwork, and was difficult to get to. Had I been on vacation, who would have known if I would have had a major problem.
It's all about experiences. Mine happened to be bad. SOme others i spoke to seemed to have similar experiences.
it's like the threads, which I hate of "which is the best salt mix" or "what is the best skimmer" etc...lots of things work different for lots of tanks as none are even close to being the same.
Thanks for the discussion, I apologize myself if it sounded as if I was being argumentive.
 
salty tank

salty tank

Member
Originally Posted by Appaloosa1
I thought this was interesting- My dad just told me that clams are responsible for cleaning up lake erie. He said when he used to go fishing up there that in someparts fish couldn't even live and they would often have growths. When clams were introduced they single handedly cleaned up the pollution in the lake. Now it is one of the cleanest fresh water lakes around.

Yes they are called zebra clams, if you do a search on them they arent as helpfull as you would think. they are taking over and doing a list of bad things, as well as good things to lake erie.
 
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