Clams, The Best Food for a Reef

[NoahMMTV]

This was a very interesting read, thank you! I do have one question, due to pollution in the oceans, clams have been a huge victim in consuming microplastics, since they are filter feeders. This is why a lot of people recommend to eat clam only occasionally, so would this affect your fish in any way?

 

[MTBake]

What do you clean them with before eating ?

I place them in a large bowl of lightly salted fresh water and set that in the fridge overnight. Purges the sand out of the clams. Nothing worse than biting into sand, imo.


Edit:

For fish food, not sure yet. This'll be my first go at that

 

[madweazl]

What do you clean them with before eating ?

I just rinse them under tap water once they've been set out to thaw for about an hour (mostly so my fingers are less stinky). I think dropping them in the tank whole triggers a feeding response from everything, they enjoy working for the food. The littleneck clams we get are generally around 1.5-2" across and we regularly find them (frozen) at the local grocery store and Costco almost always has them well (typically less than $.50 a piece but we usually get them in 30-50 count bags).

 

[Paul B]

Here on Long Island NY the streets are paved with them so they are cheap. You don't have to clean them and if they have microplastics in them, Then I am full of microplastics as I have eaten them my entire life, and I'm old.
I buy them live but I guess you can buy them in a bag, especially if you live in Tunisia or that place where Yoda came from.

Your fish won't care if you can't get the correct food for them, they just want the correct food. I would like to keep a Duck Billed Platypus but they eat a few pounds of earthworms a day so it wouldn't be prudent at this juncture for me to keep one.

Remember we don't have to use foods with a nice picture of an angelfish on the bag. Fish in the sea rarely get food like that and they don't have thumbs to open the bag. Fresh foods would "always" be better especially if, like me, you want the living bacteria which is the biggest advantage to feeding clams or live worms. If you would like to get and keep your fish immune, you really IMO need fresh or freshly frozen foods. Those frozen, bagged clams may have been put in that bag by Lincoln or Edison. I don't think Alexander Graham Bell packed clams because he was very busy inventing the cell phone and Tap a Talk.

 

[Victoria M]

I see these clams at the grocery store and wonder if they are the kind to feed to marine aquariums. Do you pry them open then freeze them?

 

[ryan quave]

Is there any place to get live little clams that will live in our tanks? I have a tusi and triger pair im sure they would love to crakc some oppen for late night snacks

 

[Sailingeric]

I use manilla clams I get at the grocery store. Freeze them, I crack in them half, drop half in, everyone goes crazy, the crabs finish off the meat and then I pull the shell out.

 

[Paul B]

Victoria you open them with a knife. I get huge clams so I open them a little with a dull knife then put something in the shell to keep it a little open so after I freeze them it is much easier to open them. I use a stirrer from Starbucks but you can use anything. Grocery store clams are fine.

All clams will live in our tanks but they will die of starvation in a week or less unless your tank is a sewer.

 

[Victoria M]

Thanks Paul. I have always wantes to try this. So next time I will try one. I also see oysters at the grocery store. Any value in feeding them?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Bought my first live clams yesterday to give a try on your advice, Paul. The comment on mysis being mostly shell and that clams were naturally gut loaded were good points. Shucked them, froze the meat, and shaved off some slices to dice and put in the tank this morning. It was rapidly consumed by all with gusto! No one even took the time to ask for crackers. Thanks for the write up.

 

[Paul B]

Victoria oysters are just as good, but send me the oysters and feed clams to the fish.

 

[427HISS]

How do oysters compare in the wholesome goodness of clams ?

 

[Victoria M]

Victoria oysters are just as good, but send me the oysters and feed clams to the fish.

Well, they always have oysters. They don't always have clams.

 

[Hal3134]

Has anyone run into an issue with keeping an ornamental clam in the tank while feeding "feeder" clams? Or to put it another way, who's been successful keeping an ornamental clam in a tank while "feeding" normal clams to the fish?

 

[Paul B]

Me.

 

[JDtimk]

Paul thanks for the write up. I picked up a dozen live clams and a dozen shucked live(ish) oysters to try feeding my tank. I pureed the oysters into a soup for the corals and chunked up the clams for the fish primarily. I am still too cautious to feed them live due to potential baddies getting in on the live feed.

Not sure if that is a founded fear or not, but for now I froze my oyster puree and my clam chunks in a couple of sandwich bags and feel better about killing any bacteria or what not that might have caused issues. Sounds like you thought live was by far the most beneficial way to feed clams to the tank, but that fresh frozen wasn't too bad of an alternative. Fish definitely loved the mix and many of the corals seemed to respond as well.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!

 

[ReefFrenzy]

@Paul B now you're just giving away my secrets!

We've used fresh clams in all our blends from the start and we go through tons of them, literally. Plenty of shredded clams and fresh oysters in our recipe.

 

[USMA36]

I freeze live clams from grocery store. Just toss the whole clam in. Don’t bother trying to open it. 15 minutes after adding to the tank the frozen clam will start to open on its own. Fish will tear it apart. I feed LRS and everyone eats that as well except my CBB and Marine Beta. He will eat whole clams but won’t touch frozen out of the water column. However he will chow down on live blackworms in the water column. Hopefully he will eventually eat the frozen food. My marine beta is a pita. He will eat the worms but only if I squirt them in one of his caves. He will occasionally take a piece of frozen the same way. He never comes out and eats with the masses though.

 

[Paul B]

Larry, don't buy all of them.. Clams and oysters are my favorite food.
I still use your LRS food every day and for the people who don't want the parasites in the food I feed, use LRS food which doesn't have live parasites.

 

[Hal3134]

Paul, I recall that you freeze your clams and then shave small pieces into the tank. It seems like you adopted this method because you buy the larger chowder clams, and presumably your tank could not handle the entire thing at once. Do you also recommend shaving off pieces of the smaller clams, or just toss the entire thing in?