Mussels with frogs

[taniaaust1]

Ive been wanting to put some fresh water mussels into my frog pond. (I get a fair bit of algae around the sides of the pond except in an area where the tabpoles hang around in and hoping the tabpoles will eat more of it if the mussels are feeding on the algae, shifting throu the sand/dirt on the bottom).

Im wondering if anyone here has tried putting mussels in their frog pond or with them in a tank? Did that go okay? (I'd love to be able to remove the pump so thinking the mussels could help?)

[Ted]

I've experimented with clams and mussels in the past and they are a lot more finicky than you think.i don't know about a pond ,but I wouldn't put them in a tank with other occupants,..without specific care they die and foul up a tank quite nicely.calms are filter feeders and need to be fed.i would take them and put them in their own tank and experiment a little with them..find out what they react to,how to feed them etc.

[deranged chipmunk]

I worked with clams and scallops in a marine tank about 20 years ago and I can attest for the toxic nature if they do not get their proper care.
Sounds like an experimental tank is in order!!

[Tongue Flicker]

I've only kept freshwater clams? (Maybe a mussel? Definitely a bivalve lol) for about 8 months together with ACFs without any problems. The clam ploughed the substrate very hard every night though so unless you can provide it with something that is deep enough to bury itself so it can become sedentary, be ready for major tank renovations overnight lol

[Ted]

Your clam probably died from slowly starving to death.theyre actually very complex creatures and really demanding.except for Tridacna,,(the only clam worth keeping). All clams,mussels,scallops etc, don't just filter water and they're good..clams filter very specific food items like nano larvae,and different sized food to as they get larger.8 months is nothing ,the oldest clam dated right now is 'ming" ..507 years old....

[Mentat]

To difficulties discussed by others in keeping alive and chance they will foul the water if dead, you have to add the risk of introducing pathogens to your pond. Clams and other bivalves are filter feeders and host to parasites .

[Tongue Flicker]

Perhaps. I wasn't really keen on keeping it since i had no idea how to take care of it and it was originally intended for human consumption but i did got curious as to how they'd do inside the tank so i saved two clams from being cooked lol.

[Ted]

That's pretty much what happened to Ming..an awlful lot of ancient clams get eaten,they're dredged up and put in chowder....

[taniaaust1]

Thanks all. Interesting posts and certainly gave me stuff to think over.If I experimented with this in a tank it would be completely different to having it in an outdoor pond, so it wouldnt really tell me much about having mussels out there. (Im not planning on feeding these at all as I want their enviroment to be a fairly natural one, the shop which sells them told me they dont need to be fed if looked after properly).It also told me that with mussels, you need to have a pond estabilised for at least 6mths before you can introduce mussels due to what they eat needing to buid up. (so anyone who has cleaned their fish tank right out in that time would be putting these into a completely unsuitable place for these!!). Most people clean the gravel etc etc of their frog tanks, so would be removing the stuff these feed on. The bottom of my pond doesnt really get cleaned out, so sediment is naturally building up (due to health issues, my pond doesnt get cleaned out at all hence I was wanting these to help keep stuff down, churn it up a bit, so my filter out in the pond picks things up better etc). .. I couldnt get them till June if Im going to do this as I'd follow the advice of the place selling them to me and wait the 6 mths first for food to build up. The type I'll be getting is a local species (I assume, I used to see them when swimming in the river). I guess from the posts they dont trap frogs?? No one has said anything about that and that was my main concern.The posts have made me far more cautious about this.. so I think when I do try this I will only try just the one mussel and not go and get several of them.Ted. Im curious what you feed these? (sorry this is in one lot, it is removing my paragraphs for some reason?).

[Ted]

Well,I'm not a mussel expert but here's it goes..I'm very familiar with freshwater mussels,the lake I was raised in had plenty of them,sometimes over 6 inches..but ,,mussels are filter feeders..that does not mean they clean water like an aquarium filter.they don't eat garbage,,,they eat minute plankton and nano larvae floating in the water.there has to be a wave type of movement,not stagnant water,,also be careful..many freshwater mussels are invasive species that can really take over a body of water.whats wrong with that? Well their larvae are parasitic to fish and amphibians..