Can mussels be kept in a freshwater aquarium?
Mussels are not recommended in freshwater aquariums.
Many mussels are even more sensitive to water parameters than fish. In the long run, clams will starve if no trick is found to feed the clams. Mussels filter their food from the water. They are therefore dependent on usable suspended matter in quantities that are difficult to provide in the aquarium. A filter that filters out suspended matter is therefore a potential food competitor for mussels.
When a clam dies, it may go unnoticed. Within a very short time, the aquarium water is then contaminated and heavily polluted. In a small tank, a dead mussel can be catastrophic after just a few hours.
Larger mussels, such as Mekong mussels, are definitely problematic in the aquarium, especially in a smaller tank. Mekong mussels, for example, only live about 6 months in a normal aquarium. The risk is unreasonably high for this short time.
Medium-sized mussels, such as Corbicula and Sphaerium, are perhaps easier to keep, but are unlikely to reproduce. Corbicula appears again and again in the trade. Dreissena sometimes lasts for a while, but with the planktonic larva it is not possible to reproduce in the aquarium.
Really small mussels, eg Pisidium, especially small-water forms of Pisidium casertanum, can probably be kept and reproduced quite well. The optical difference to medium-fine sand is not exactly drastic.
All native mussels will probably have problems in the warm water at some point. With all mussels, except for the Dreissena, it can be assumed that a mud or fine sand bottom is ultimately necessary.
pond mussels
Pond mussels filter bacteria, floating or floating algae, protozoa, etc. as food from the aquarium water. An aquarium filter basically eats away their food.
A mussel clears about 200 liters of water within 4 to 6 days and then keeps the water clean.
An aquarium for pond mussels should be run in and have sludge on the bottom. In addition to the mussel filtering, ventilation may be necessary so that the gas exchange via the water surface in the tank works. The operation of a small internal filter without a filter cartridge, as a kind of flow pump, is possibly better than aeration that expels CO2.
Pond mussels are not fixed in one place, but slide around on their feet in the tank. They draw furrows in the substrate and can uproot plants.
In spring, pond mussels secrete huge amounts of their parasitic larvae, glochidia, into the water, which dig into the mucous membrane of fish with hooks and form cysts similar to I. multifiliis.
Worse still, the larvae are inhaled by fish and grow ‘parasitically’ in the fish gills until it’s time to transform into tiny shells.
Under aquarium conditions, the water is constantly breathed by the fish. Therefore, the fish do not escape the larvae in the aquarium. The relatively small aquarium fish are easily overburdened by the glochidia. The larvae then noticeably weaken the fish. The glochidia are expelled from the mussel in spring. Pond mussels and painter mussels should therefore never be placed in the aquarium before June.
It is difficult to tell whether the mussel is finding enough food in the aquarium. Occasional feeding treatments are therefore useful, for example in an open water fish storage tank for frogfish in a pond. Alternatively, a feed treatment in a separate small aquarium with slightly cloudy bacteria or infusoria water can be tried. The tank can be provided with greenish floating rearing food for Artemia, which are also filter feeders.
Mussels live where it is cooler, even in summer. Like cold-water fish, pond mussels do not want it to be too warm.
zebra mussels
Zebra mussels, Dreissena polymorpha, are a better choice for the aquarium than pond mussels. These have a different course of development and do not give off any parasitic larvae. They form colonies and stay in one place.
These illegal immigrants to our inland waters are great fun in the aquarium. In the meantime, they should be found in almost all major German waterways. They may also have colonized the smaller tributaries.
clams
Asian clams dig very little and usually sit on the surface of the substrate in rivers. They often dig themselves into lakes. They grow to a maximum of 2.5 centimeters.
The larvae are free-swimming but may need salt water. They have at least been introduced into the ballast water tanks of large container ships. However, given their massive proliferation in our rivers, one could also assume that they do not need salt water.
They can be fed with finely ground flake food and occasionally with ground melted flakes, a type of oatmeal. A small internal filter that runs weakly can create water movement.