I ve seen small sand clams for sale

HI,
I have seen a few sand clams for sale are they a filter feeder or waste of water.
Doug..

 

well then i retract my previous statement! lol

 

Monkey I think he is talking about the ones that bury themselves in the sand. I remember those. IPSF has them.

I haven't heard much about them good or bad but I suppose if they keep your sand from solidifying that is a good thing. I would guess they don't move around as much as nass. snails though, but I could be wrong.

 

I've had them before. I didn't see how they were beneficial and they don't live very long. Matt is correct in that they don't move at all except to burrow in and out of the sand. If you're looking for a critter to keep your sand stirred up, I'd get nassarius snails rather than sand sifting clams.

 

they are filter feeders, but here are a few things people over look when they are thinking that adding them will help clean up there water.

they require a lot of particulate matter and nutrients just to live. most reef tanks just dont have enough food for them. they spawn a few times a year, when they do this they release lots of gametes into the water that quickly die. this die off can raise ammonia, drop O2 and cause a bacterial bloom, basically reek havoc on the tank and even crash it. they live buried in the sand so when they do die you dont know it and they just lay there and rot.

 

ER thanks

HI,
Thats exactly what I wanted to know, I often wonder if many of those wonderous ideas are not so good in practice, whilest we are on the subject of good versus bad critters, I ordered 20 tiny little shoal shrimp they are about 1/4 inch they look alot like the freshwater shrimp, online they arrived today, I put them in the sump and they are cleaning the cheto and waiting with the snails at the input sump tube from the tank for any uneaton food and other things... are they a potential problem or a plus ps some of them seemed to have eggs., they share the sump with about 50 nassirus snail and a baby serpant star that came with the cheto. with a few other criters very small most likely pods and such,
Doug

 

i read somewhere that mysis eat copods so i don't think they'd be a good thing.its worth looking into before letting them into your main display.