Freshwater Clams & Mussels!

[bold elbow]

I recently discovered that people keep and sell freshwater bivalves (clams, molluscs etc) when visiting my LFS last weekend, never even considered that as a possibility! I feel like these guys would be a (hopefully) simple to implement addition to our tanks that could look pretty neat, especially in tanks with lots of rocky hardscape.

I feel like if they were implemented theyd probably be mostly found in weird pal or comcoms, maybe rarely all throughout the shops. Id imagine them working kinda like hardscape too where you can rotate them around and stuff, but maybe they can also move around if they see fit i dunno.

All in all i just think they'd be neat, and if nothing else hopefully this made some of you aware that these critters exist in aquaria!

[rare tundra]

Freshwater bivalves are super cool but I just hope they won't be entirely realistic lol

They need constant food

[eager geyser]

Mhm

Iirc lotta freshwater bivalves need really matured, mulmy tanks, and even then they can like

[rare tundra]

Idk if freshwater clams can also do the silly dance to move but it would be cool to see them move that way when disturbed by other fish.

[eager geyser]

Go through that nutrients really quick

[rare tundra]

They also kinda just bury themselves most of the time iirc.

[eager geyser]

Yah, just what they do to avoid predators naturally

How deeply they bury themselves really depends on the species, most common ones in the trade either stay near the surface or will try to fully bury themselves

[rare tundra]

I think they will accept prepared foods n stuff but they need spot feeding which makes it even harder lmao

[eager geyser]

Mhmm

Very species dependent, I've kept a corbicula species myself and they can feed from detritus but like, will go through nutrients in it really quick, and like to bury themselves, especially under any sort of hardscape