new clams added, or remove?

A friend of mine distributes clams and oysters from farms up in Canada and farms everywhere in between down through mexico. These are live bulk shipped to him and then distributed to restaurants, ect.
He gave me a few so I'm trying to decide if they should be kept in my new tank or eaten and not risk any tank disaster from them.

I'm told they are summer clams and venus clams.

Any opinions on if I should keep them or not would be wonderful.
These are in a red sea max130 with 60lb live rock and 40lb live sand, mostly polyps and mushrooms, shrimp, cleanup crew. no fish right now its a newish system I'm taking slow before I stock it up more. 80% of my live rock was purchased fully encrusted with coralline for over a years growth so I'm hoping the other 20% catches up quickly.

Are these clams a ticking time bomb for me right now or something that will help add to the filtering?

Thanks, hope nobody is mad I said I would eat them...

right now I do see them already opening and sticking out their bivalve

 

If they're not in the Tridacna family, I wouldn't risk it. Do you even know for sure that they're not freshwater clams? FTR, that's the only live clams I can find at the supermarkets in my area.

 

Yes, they are from mexico, warm salt water farm raised and likely out of the water in mexico the same day I got my hands on them. local socal fish markets and supermarkets hope to be next in line for the freshness in the distribution chain, mainly high end local restaurants buy it oysters alone can taste so different if from Washington farms, compared to Vancouver farms, compared to baja mex farms, or even my local carlsbad aquafarm oysters. If i'm going to benefit from them as filters in my tank I'm all for keeping them going. But any risk to my tank I'll go ahead and start boiling some water.
I am positive they are of similar temperature salt water to my tank. My snails and peppermint shrimp are very interested in them already. hermits still haven't found them yet. I'll watch them carefully.

 

The challenge with keeping non-photosynthetic clams is that they require a lot of phytoplankton. The amount of phyoplankton would overwhelm a regular reef system and cause nutrient build-up. You would probably need to do multiple water changes a week, along with daily target feeds.

You may be able to keep it alive short term, but long term the clam will need nutrition.

I had considered acclimating an aquacultured geoduck to my tank for a while, but decided against it.

 

Thats what I was looking for, good information and logical reasons. I'll take them out right now. Thank You.

 

However, many people keep these types of clams in their sump for to help reduce nitrates.

 

If you do risk it, I definitely wouldn't try more than one. At least that way they can't die off in mass and cause huge problems. That said I wouldn't try any due to low amounts of information.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers
Sent from Tapatalk

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. I took them out, its not worth risking my plans for my lil' reef and the money I'm going to be putting into it as I stock it.