Mussels with frogs

[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..