Quote:
Originally Posted by daniella3d
How is your bioload helping your clam? clams eat phytoplankton, not fish waste.
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Yes they do. Does this little game we play ever get boring to you?
Fatherree explains in his book how clams can feed on a variety of things such as phytoplankton, dissolved organic matter, detritus, nitrogen and phosphorus aka. fish waste. I'm not going to copy the whole thing out for you but here is a good paragraph:
"Want a second opinion about feeding? How about Delbeek & Sprung (1994), "...the effort required to feed these items is not worth it in our opinion. Tridacnid clams have been grown successfully in both culture systems and home aquaria for many years without supplemental feedings." And you can get a third opinion from Knop (1996), "Altogether the food requirements of clams is so small that a special feeding scheme for them is superfluous if the tank is populated with a fair number of fish, especially if corals are regularly fed, In such a case a special food destined for the clams would even unbalance the whole system." And here's a forth opinion from Calfo (2001), "Many clams have been maintained years in aquaria without any deliberate feeding, but rather dependent upon light and dissolved compounds." If you're new to the hobby you might not know who the heck these guys are, but I assure you that you'll eventually become familiar with them if you read much. So, there you go."
p176 Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium the biology, identification, and aquarium husbandry of tridacnid clams by James Fatherree. 2006