Fresh water clams

has any one tried useing fresh water clams for water quality controle? i have read that people use them in outdoor ponds.

I *think*, being filter feeders, they need "green water" to survive. In a home aquarium I'm sure they'd starve to death, unless you could provide them with that pea soup-like looking water... not much point, unless you don't mind not being able to see much of what's in the tank

I have them in a pond....they do very well if they have lots of silt/clay to bury themselves in.
If one died in a aquarium, it would soon turn the water sour.

One of the problems that can happen with them in aquaria, is because they can't bury, the intake and exhalent siphons are often attacked by animals in the aquaria preventing the mussle from feeding or damaging it enough that it dies.

Mike, how big is the pond and is this a stream or pond dwelling mussle? Over hear many mussle species are becoming endangered, and at some point I will be putting in a pond and would like to include some mussles.

Ed

Ed, it's a small silted up pond, approx 2 x 3 meters.
The swan mussels (Anodonta cygnea) are found locally in slow running rivers, lakes and ponds. I believe that the European bitterling (Rhodeus sericeus) uses the mussel for part of it's life-cycle.
Over here the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) is I think the most endangered. It is protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which was strengthened in March 1998 to give them full protection. It can live for up to 100 years, only thrives in clean water and requires the presence of wild salmon to reproduce.

In the USA, we have a huge number of freshwater mussles and I think the majority are now threatened or endangered. I'll have to see if we have any local species that will do well in still waters.

Ed

Ed, I don`t know how things are down in PA, but in NY we have a huge problem with zebra mussels that were brought over from europe in ballast water. They have clogged pipes, and done some real damage to the native clam populations. On a positive note though, the water has never been cleaner.

Zebras haven't gotten down this far as of yet but it is only a matter of time.

Yep the water is so clean that planktiverous fish can starve to death. Have you seen the introduced goby up there yet?

Ed

Hi all

To add my little bit to this discussion. Yes the Swan Mussel is used by the European bitterling as a nursery the female depositing her eggs inside the mussel via the syphon. Several books have descriptions and illustrations of this.

As a sad side note. In the 80's many pet shops sold European bitterling and Swan Mussels for them to be able to breed. I do not know of anyone who succeeded with them, and the main problem was the inability of the mussel to bury itself.

As to needing “green water” to live in, the waters I have encountered them in have tended to be the clearest ones in the area. We still have several areas where they are found though nowhere near as populous as they were. The waters still remain the clearest in the area and if you devote long enough to observing the beds of the ponds or slow – medium flowing rivers you may be lucky enough to see an individual emerge from the silt and move off to a fresh site.

Incidentally I have only seen wild Bitterling once. I have seen Swan Mussels frequently though.

Regards to everyone Jeff

(Message edited by jeff_gandy on March 20, 2005)

Nope, no problem with the goby up here yet.