The benefit of feeding clams

[Paul B]

I just love clams, I collect them, I feed them to my fish, I eat them either raw, stuffed, fried, or in chowder but the only way I feed them to my fish is fresh. OK I buy them live and freeze them. I feel clams are the second best food we can feed our fish "and" corals for a few reasons. First of all, they are very cheap. I can buy a live chowder clam here in New York for about fifty cents (or I can catch them for free) I slightly open them and stick a popsicle stick, tooth pick or rolled up 100 dollar bill in it's shell so when I freeze it, it is easier to open. After it is frozen, I shave off paper thin slices as big as I want depending on what size fish I am feeding. A manta ray would get bigger slices than a sexy shrimp. I don't keep the more common fish, I don't have any tangs, percula clowns, or angels, I just find them to common but I do have copperbands, mandarins, pipefish, possum wrasses, and a weird assortment of gobies and ruby red dragonettes. Besides them my tank is a conglomeration of SPS, leathers, LPS and rusty beer cans. As the fish eat the thin slices of clam, clam juice is dispersed from the pieces that goes all over the tank. This does not go to waste as my algae trough (or algae filter) is filled up to the surface with tiny tube worms. My reverse undergravel filter is also loaded with them. Yes reverse undergravel filter, you can stop laughing now unless your tank is older. The tiny pieces of clam are just the thing for feeding giant leather corals, and forget about duncans, they grow so fast after eating clams that you can hear them creaking. The clam juice is undoubtedly used by the myriad of filter feeders and the slightly larger pieces are eaten by gorgonians and most corals. Clams are the best (or second best) food because a clam is an animal that sits on the bottom of a bay just hanging out for 7 or 8 years just sucking up water and everything that is in it. They are full of minerals including calcium which is what their shell is made out of. When you feed a clam to your tank you are feeding the entire clam including the guts, intestines, ears, eyelashes etc. Everything, unlike if you feed shrimp, squid, scallop, octopus, platypus or fish because those foods are just the muscle and not the guts. I don't eat most creature guts, but I am not a fish. Fish crave that stuff which is why some of my fish are on social security. If your fish are not dying of old age, you are feeding them wrong. You can tell them I said so. Fish fed correctly do not get sick, not ever (OK one fish in 100 may get hemorrhoids once in 20 years) And they live out their normal lifespan which may be anywhere from 10 to 30 years depending on what species it is "and" they should be spawning for almost all of those years. Clams is what you need. I know many people say they can't get clams and what I like to tell those people is, Move
(By the way, the best food of course is live blackworms)

 

[reef boy]

I always enjoy reading your posts with your sense of humor. I always have smile on my face when I'm done reading. I like the idea of being able to feed for your fish and corals at the same time a lot. Question for you, do you do anything to the clams to make sure there isn't any unwanted inhabitants when you get them from the bay?

 

[greg 45]

Why wouldn't you open them and then freeze them , instead of leaving them in the shell
Also do you freeze he black worms

 

[mrehfeld]

I love the stainless nut holding the air tube down in the jar. What are you culturing in there?

 

[Paul B]

Question for you, do you do anything to the clams to make sure there isn't any unwanted inhabitants when you get them from the bay?

No, I freeze them, sometimes read to them, but freezing is usually all. I am not the type of person that worries about such things as I collect water amphipods, mud, snails, seaweed etc and dump it in my tank

Why wouldn't you open them and then freeze them , instead of leaving them in the shell

By keeping them in the shell It is easier to hold them as I shave off thin pieces every meal. It is to hard to hold an unshelled clam.
I freeze worms when I go on vacation and someone takes care of my tank for me

I love the stainless nut holding the air tube down in the jar. What are you culturing in there?

I use stainless steel a lot in my tank. I know many people are paranoid about that but their tank is not as old as mine so maybe stainless steel is the key. There are brine shrimp eggs in there as I put them in there the day before I put them in my hatchery/shell separator because they take a day and a half to hatch, so I pre soak them in there. They just love stainless steel and stare into it like a mirror. Some of them are very vain.