Cleaner Clams - Any Good? Any Where?

[smidoid]

Are they any use would be the first question. I just got my first Desera and it's dull... but a change from the usual fare, but while researching that I came across cleaner clams. Some of you US types seem to get them from bait shops, restraunts and even Wal Mart (!??!) maybe I read that wrong.

Anyway. If they are worth having, what should I be asking for and where (if anywhere) are they available in Europe or the UK in particular.

[weez1959]

Try this link for an interesting read:
Cleaner Clams [Archive] - .::AquariumPros.ca::.

[wozza]

here you go

eBay.co.uk: Live Tropical Marine Oysters Reef Food Invert Coral (item 230075123251 end time 07-Apr-07 02:35:07 BST)

[smidoid]

Milk and Cookies kept you awake too, eh? Wozza.

Thanks (both of you).

I've ordererd 1 (I'm tighter than Chubby Brown's undies) so I'll have to see what turns up (and what happens after that!)

M

[greenbean36191]

Umm, hate to burst people's bubbles, but these clams, like all marine animals are nitrate producers, not consumers. Tridacna only give a net reduction in nitrate because their zooxanthellae are using more than the clam produces. Manilla clams and oysters won't be any more helpful in lowering nutrients than adding another fish would be.

[smidoid]

Pop!

Guess I'll just have to have it with some lemon.

Now I'm going to try something else. :-)

Polyfilter [http://www.poly-bio-marine.com/polyprod.htm] is claimed (NOT by its inventors, they are more realistic) to reduced Nitrate. The inventors claim (and I can follow the science) that it only stops nitrate being produced by locking some of the nitrite and ammonia out from the water column.

Now this is interesting. If this is really as good as promised, then the polyfilter can slow the overall production of nitrates in the system - and the slack could be taken up by macro algae and other well-known techniques.

[wozza]

yea i think polyfilters are pretty good myself, they do as they claim IMO. but i think ninong know more about it than i

[Ninong]

Are they any use would be the first question. I just got my first Desera and it's dull... but a change from the usual fare, but while researching that I came across cleaner clams. Some of you US types seem to get them from bait shops, restraunts and even Wal Mart (!??!) maybe I read that wrong.

Anyway. If they are worth having, what should I be asking for and where (if anywhere) are they available in Europe or the UK in particular.

They're talking about Manila clams (Tapes philippinarum). I tried two dozen of these in my 6" DSB when I first set up my tank because IPSF in Hawaii claimed they would survive. I included them in an order for a lot of other stuff. They looked cute and I wanted to give them a try.

I ordered 24 and Gerald shipped 27. Only two or three didn't survive shipping from Hawaii. I believe I ended up with 23 of them actually burying themselves in the sand bed. It took approximately 12 to 36 hours for all of them to "come alive" after being added to the tank and bury themselves just beneath the surface of the sand bed.

They started dying off about 90 days later. When they die, they come up to the surface of the sand bed. They all died over a period of three to nine months in my tank in spite of the fact that I was deliberately overfeeding D.T.'s live phytoplankton (daily) in an effort to keep them going.

In retrospect, I don't see any advantage to trying these clams. Knowing what I know now, I would have saved my money and spent it on something else. It was just one of those whim purchases.

I don't know of anyone who has kept any species of oysters long term in a reef tank. If you find a report of that, please post a link. That would be interesting. Same goes for so-called flame scallops, which are really file clams. They don't survive long term.

[smidoid]

Like I said the Ninong, better with a bit of lemon. Expensive though.