oysters for sump?

[epidemic]

Would it be possible to put oysters or some other clam in ones sump? Does any place sell live oysters or clams? (other than tridacnea)

[MNGold15]

i have seen "cleaner clams" on saltwaterfish.com, but i know very little about them. i believe they were fairly cheap, something like $5 a piece. i believe they still need light, so a sump may not be the best for them.

[oyam123]

Would it be possible to put oysters or some other clam in ones sump? Does any place sell live oysters or clams? (other than tridacnea)

HY-VEE, check the seafood counter.

[epidemic]

Iwas thinking Byerlies or an authentic chinese grocery store

[oyam123]

Iwas thinking Byerlies or an authentic chinese grocery store

I get the live blue crabs at the chinese place.

[-Ace-]

I get the live blue crabs at the chinese place.

For you, or the tank?

[oyam123]

Me, but I ahve put in live clams for the fish to eat.

[epidemic]

live or fresh?

[-Ace-]

I have bought live clams from Cub and fed my tank with them from time to time- both either cooked, or live- they love them the same.

[BiochemRobyn]

Random thought: could you culture pearls in your tank if you knew where to inject the piece of sand?

[lottie_pufferfish]

no, i dont think you can make a pearl by yourself. the real pearl compainys use a spasific breed of oyster, called a Pearl Oyster (haha go figure). these are the fastest and best at making a pearl id asume, ( i mean why else would they be called PEARL OYSTERS) lol. it take up to like 3 or 4 years i think for the pearl to be big enough.AND farmers dont even insert a grain of sand! its more like a small bead. correct me if im wrong?

[PLNelson]

You're correct. They use a bead that is made from the shell of (Usually) a north american fresh water clam. Depending on how big you want the pearl, the time that it says in the oyster will vary, at least two years. I personally don't see why someone couldn't aquaculture pearls in the aquariums, so long as the oyster remained healthy.

[Turf]

Woo hoo check out my three pearl necklace... Da^^ I broke it trying to put a hole in the thing... three years later... woo hoo look at my, da^^ not again...

[mtfatwork]

Woo hoo check out my three pearl necklace... Da^^ I broke it trying to put a hole in the thing... three years later... woo hoo look at my, da^^ not again...



:rotflmao:

[coralreefer]

I saw some mussels on liveaquaria's divers den that looked kinda interesting. I think they were pernia sp. May be interesting to try.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?ddid=22560&siteid=20

[capman]

There are some oysters that crop up on live rock that can do OK in reef tanks (at least in my relatively organic tanks - I have one long slender one that grew on a rock that I bought mushroom anemones on, and I have had this oyster growing for about 8 years), but most bivalves that are not having major supplementation of their nutrition by symbiotic algae (in other words, most bivalves other than giant clams) are almost certainly going to starve in our relatively pristine tanks that are practically devoid of any significant microplankton. If your tank was slightly cloudy with planktonic algae most of the time there are probably all sorts of cool bivalves you could keep. But in a typical tank their days will be numbered.

I have kept flame scallops for months on occasion (one lasted at least 6 months, maybe longer), but most attempts failed more quickly and in no case did I see any growth at all. Common bay scallops starve in less than a week. Oysters from the seafood store can last a little longer, but in my experience not more than a few weeks or a month. Coquina clams (delightful little burrowing clams from the Gulf of Mexico that I have occasionally ordered for teaching purposes) starve in a matter of days. Various other clams from the seafood store have lasted varying lengths of time, but never long enough to consider my keeping of them a success. And this is all in my unskimmed reef tanks.

Diligent, reliable, consistent feeding with planktonic algae could probably change all of these outcomes. But I'd bet these animals would require a lot more algae than most people would feel comfortable putting into their tanks.

[capman]

Live blue crabs (mentioned above) are very cool animals in an aquarium by the way. You'd need a tank dedicated to the crab. They are amazing predators. But this would be an animal that would seem like a real pet. It will watch you, interact with you, beg for food, etc. They are smart and figure out captive life pretty fast. They also have pretty impressive claws to keep your fingers away from!

OK, I have not kept blue crabs per se. I've kept a very closely related smaller species of swimming crab that only gets to be 4 or 5 inches across. I would expect blue crabs would behave much the same, aside from their greater adult size.

A good lid on the tank is a must with these crabs. They can decide to go wandering sometimes (the one I had that did this was a male, I think, and I suspect it was trying to find a mate - I'm pretty sure the other one we had in another tank was a female).

[epidemic]

thanks Cap'