Well, I had bought some fresh water clams & some snails. I thought they would be a neat addition to my tanks!

I found out the kind of snails I got will probably take over my tank soon & I started looking around for the clams there was one bigger one (maybe an inch) & 2 smaller ones (probably 1/2 inch each) I found the bigger one & kept looking. My hubby pointed out 2 different looking SHELLS! They fish ATE the clams! Oh well, who can blame them I like clams too!

Shame they ate the clams.

In the pet shop here they have them 6 inches long, maybe longer. No danger of being eaten then

Those clams always seemed to die in our tanks at work too. I think the problem is all the freshwater clams are coldwater, not goldfish cold water , but COLD, like 50º or less! I have heard of people keeping them in tropical tanks and then they die.

Dont worry, I dont think your fish killed them but rather ate them because they died. Clams have strong muscles to keep the shells closed and the fish would only be able to get to them when the shells have opened after they died.

My mom and dad brought some fresh water clams from the wild and put some into the 10 gal white cloud tank and some in my grandma's pond waterfall. They need to muck around in something like gravel that has debris in it.

They lived a long time in the tank but have finally all died off. I had also brought one up that I found in a creek near where I lived in Sacramento that was also in the tank. The ones in the water fall are all gone too I think. Still a couple closed shells last time I cleaned out the waterfall, but I think they are all dead with mud in the shells.

I remember when I moved up from California back to Oregon I had two goldies and a clam in the 5 gal bucket with the battery power air pump for the air stone. This was in the moving truck cab with a cat in her kennel cab and two gerbles in their kritter keeper.

That was one funny trip.

The big one(well, it isn't THAT big) but seems okay. Kinda wedged into the gravel! Do they move around........not much action goin' on!

They have a tail or foot of some sort and they move around in the gravel to eat junk. The ones I had are from tidal waters and would find increased food sorces after the new tide came in and was deposeted in the mud. if they are really doing well there will be a slight openening to their shell and a vent sticking out a little.

Demi

actually, I think all clams are filter-feeders... they root around in the substrate for concealment and protection but they stick one end of their shells out of the gravel for their siphons to filter food particles from the water column. Maybe the clams you got just aren't getting enough to eat? or brackish-water species? true freshwater clams that can adapt to aquaria are generally larger than the size you quoted. i used to have a pair that were 2 inches across each. And I used to see clams from a lagoon in a local park that were 8 inches across!
BTW, maybe its better that your clams died. Smaller freshwater clams called pill clams or sphere clams tend to breed in aquaria, and hatching clam larva called glochidia act as blood parasites on fish; larger freshwater clam species don't breed in the aquarium as they need seasonal changes to trigger their breeding cycle (this bit of info I got from an article in Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine some time ago)

Gee, glad they are gone then! Maybe my fish knew of this danger & had them knocked off!! Anyway they got a nice clam dinner once in their lives!

If you still want a bivalve in your tank I'd say you'll have better chances with freshwater mussels like the Pearly freshwater mussel or the Green Papershell, Anodonta grandis. these are larger (no danger of being eaten by fish unless they die from metal/copper poisoning or such from water) and they could actually help a lot in filtration since their natural food is waterborne bacteria and detritus, siphoning them at an amazingly massive constant turnover rate. perfect for controlling bacterial blooms!

Those sound really interesting Man Yu. Do you know what sort of substrate they'd have to be in? I am going to go look them up and see but I know some bivalves have to have the sand to burrow in.

I once read a really great article about the zebra mussels (who plagued lakes in the northern US) and how good they are at cleaning water. The author put some of them in a tank of greenwater and they completely cleaned it. It was amazing.

Now that i think about it, the two clams I mentioned having before are actually Pearly brown mussels. They slipped in comfortably at my 2-millimeter particle black gravel and immediately began their siphoning once they were nicely settled in. Know how I got them? my mom actually got them from the market to be cooked for dinner and I snuck two! They lived several months in my tank and they didn't die from any cause at all but because I had to break down the tank for carpentry work at the part of the house it was standing in. I just threw them in with another bunch of mussels that were supposed to be dinner
And no, I didn't have any qualms about it. After all, I wouldn't have recognized them amid all the other mussels after they were cooked. right?

LOL I suppose that would work. Although there are always warnings on the water conditioner bottles and meds and things that say not for human consumption.

No risk of that. i didn't use any water additives except for dechlorinators the whole time they were there as I am aware that many fish meds are harmful to invertebrates