Freshwater clams can be found in rivers and natural lakes with gentle-flow moving waters rich in sediments and nutrients. Usually they can be found burrowed under shallow bed of sands and they are generally peaceful loving creature which would not harm and provoked other lake dwellers. Because of its friendly nature, clams have attracted the attention of freshwater hobbyist and these days they are even collected and added to an aquarium establishment in order to live and thrive together with other fish species.Clams make wonderful addition to any fish tank and unlike other pets; they do not require special attention to fulfill their needs. They are often added to be part of an aquarium community because clams are known to act as natural filter to remove particles and leftover food debris which often get trapped among the sand and gravel bed. An aquarium designed to keep both fish and the clams should have mixture of substrates which should not be too coarse or too fine with the grain size measuring somewhere between 1 to 3mm. I would suggest you properly rinse and clean before adding the substrate to prevent unwanted accumulation of waste that might harbor viral diseases.
Coming to maintenance, I rarely have any problem having to deal with their needs. In fact these clams almost took care of themselves without even requiring my attention or supervision. Certain aquarists leave them alone without feeding any special food so that they will sift through the leftover waste and picking them up. For mine, sometimes, I will head over to the pet fish stores and try to buy for them some sinking algae wafers which they simply love to eat. One note of caution however is that, make sure that there are no dead clams being left in the tank, or else it will immediately foul the water and raise ammonia level hazardous to your aquatic community.
Freshwater aquarium clams are compatible with all tropical species and coldwater fish as they will adjust to suit the natural condition. However, what I found out is that they prefer slightly lower water temperature usually in the region of 20 to 22 degree Celsius meaning that coldwater companions will be more suitable getting along with them. There are certain fish species however which I would avoid keeping them together with my pet clams such as freshwater puffer, loaches and certain catfish species because they will end up making a good meal out of them.
Information provided by one of our loyal readers.
Thanks Mark, appreciate it!
