Cleaner Clams???

[joeb712]

I was looking up some inverts on this website, and came across a cleaner clam. It claims to be a great nitrate reducer, but I have never seen these in reef books or any info about them online . The picture seems like it looks like the regular clams we can buy and eat. Also my next question- can I indeed buy like 3 or 4 clams from a fish store and throw them into the tank to start me off. I'm just setting up a reef tank, and have had live rock in there for a while. I'm ready to start adding slowly, some cheap stuff as a start.

 

[geoxman]

I saw these when I set up my 55 gal-I bought them from a fish butcher shop-40 cents each-15 months later all are alive and I never have a problem with nitrates-feed them nothing except phytofood. They were frozen when I bought them(really) the guy at the store said acclimate them-I did and they are great. The only thing I see is thier two little tubes coming from thier shell. They start to move in a couple of hours-a long foot comes out and scoots them around the tank. I bought these from a fish store that sells fish for food not a pet store

 

[spline9]

Thats interesting because Ive seen shrimp that look very much like peppermint shrimp but WAY bigger than the ones in the LFS's. Like a few inches long. They were being sold at this Asian market (mixed Asian but mostly Viet) and was wondering what species they are. Dont think peppermints get that large. ...do they?

 

[clarkiiboi]

Cleaner clams have been a recent topic here, and I believe from what I read, they wont survive long. geoxman That seems far fetched to me. Frozen inverts when acclimated will rise again, humm? :notsure: Just curious how that could be possible :thinking:.
spline9 pepps dont get huge, but willing to bet its not pepps, where they alive?

 

[viet-tin]

I had cleaner clams in my tank. They did perfectly fine. I got all of mines 4 free because i caught my own.

 

[spline9]

ClarkiiBoi: Yes, they were very much alive. Maybe one day I'll go back and see if I can take a pic of the tank. Heh. There were tons of them in there! They definately looked like peps (red/white stripes n stuff) but if they actually were, I'm not so sure.