Clams, The Best Food For your Tank

DaneGer21 · Feb 16, 2020

I buy clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, and shrimp at my local fresh seafood store.

I take everything home, remove everything from the shells, rinse it all or at least try to remove most of the juices , and then LIGHTLY blend it all in my magic bullet.(blend lightly or else you’ll be feeding sludge and not chucks when it thaws!) I then lay down a piece of wax paper and a piece of 8”x8” eggcrate on top of that. Then I spread the goop/blended food onto and into the eggcrate. Pop it in the freezer and by morning you have fresh seafood cubes that you can pop out individually! No need to thaw and rinse before feeding because that was done during prep, plus it was fresh food so no additives to remove. I literally just toss the frozen cubes in and let the tank thaw them. As it thaws or the fish bite at them the they eventually break apart feeding everyone.

Here’s what’s left of a small batch...

el aguila · Mar 6, 2020

Just picked up a dozen clams at an oriental grocery in Charlotte.

I don’t have much experience at purchasing live clams. Guy at the seafood counter said that they were fresh. Clams are shut tight.

I’ll give them a try.

Icryhard · Mar 28, 2023

Paul B said:
Clams, the absolute best food for salt water fish

The title says it all. If I could only feed one type of food, it would be regular, common, cheap, (near the coasts of the US) available, clams.
I myself feed clams almost every day to all my fish and have been since the 60s. Virtually all the fish eat it, that includes mandarins, pipefish, queen anthius, moorish Idols etc. All invertabrates also eat it such as crabs, urchins, shrimp, anemones and coral.
Not only do they eat it, but it is probably the best thing they can eat just short of eating tiny fish which are hard to come by in the quantities we need. I have spoken to fish food manufacturers about this but aparantly they are unavailable to them to make fish food out of which is surprising as the sea is loaded with them.
Another great thing about feeding clams is that as the fish are chewing them, tiny pieces and juices come off and spread around the tank feeding the corals and filter feeders. I have never directly fed my corals, the clams do that for me. The microscope particles also feed the pods, and I want as many pods as I can get. My tank is always filled with them which is how I am able to keep so many mandarins, pipefish, scooter bleenies etc.
I copied this from an online source of shellfish nutrition:
5. Shellfish
Out of all the wonderfully nutritious organisms found in the sea, shellfish may be the most nutritious of all. Commonly consumed types of shellfish include clams, oysters and various others.
Clams are among the best sources of vitamin B12 in existence, with a 100 grams of clams supplying over 16 times the RDA! It is also loaded with other nutrients, including Vitamin C, B-Vitamins, Potassium, Selenium and Iron (25).
Oysters are also incredibly nutritious… with a 100 grams supplying 6 times the RDA for Zinc, 2 times the RDA for Copper, along with large amounts of B12 and Vitamin D - along with a plethora of other nutrients (26). Really, shellfish are among the most nutritious foods in existence. Unfortunately, people rarely consume them.
I buy the biggest clams I can find and here in New York the bigger clams are the cheapest which is good news. I get the clams live and freeze them myself. Usually I buy them for myself to make clam chowder out of and I keep some for the fish. A large chowder clam, about 4" long will last me a week or two as I also feed other things. A clam of that size is less than fifty cents.
After the clam is frozen, I shave off paper thin slices depending on what I am feeding.

Most fish can handle a rather large piece of clam if it is shaved very thin, copperbands especially love this food and try very hard to smile while they are eating them but the shape of their mouth makes it difficult for them.
When we feed clams we are feeding an entire animal, organs and all and being clams are filter feeders, their organs are loaded with the things fish are supposed to eat. If we feed table shrimp, fish fillets, octopus, scallop or squid, we are just feeding the muscle which is the least nutritious parts of those creatures. We as humans eat those parts, but fish need the guts.
Most of us also feed mysis and that is not a bad food but most of the frozen mysis we can buy are shell and that shell is not calcium and is not digestable so it just goes to waste. Looking closely at a single mysis you can see more shell than anything else but a clam is all nutrition and will keep your fish in spawning mode. If you keep a natural tank, and if you can get your clams fresh, it will also keep your fish immune.
I eat them all the time myself which Is why I seem to be immune.

Is it possible to pop a clam open and throw it in the aquarium, for the animals to nip at?

Paul B · Mar 29, 2023

It is depending on what kind of fish you have. Most fish will finish off a small clam in no time but the larger clams are tough and many fish won't be able to eat them whole unless it is a trigger fish or moray eel which won't have any problems.

Icryhard · Mar 29, 2023

Paul B said:
It is depending on what kind of fish you have. Most fish will finish off a small clam in no time but the larger clams are tough and many fish won't be able to eat them whole unless it is a trigger fish or moray eel which won't have any problems.

I see... would it be possible to slice them in thin layers and then freeze it in? That way I can just take out a thin layer and throw it in immediately, or is that a no-go because the clam has been opened or something?

Paul B · Mar 30, 2023

It's a no no because you can't slice a fresh clam. It would be like slicing Jello with mashed potato mixed in. Freeze them first, then slice them, then you can put them back in the freezer. If you slice them, buy the biggest clams you can get.

Icryhard · Mar 30, 2023

Paul B said:
It's a no no because you can't slice a fresh clam. It would be like slicing Jello with mashed potato mixed in. Freeze them first, then slice them, then you can put them back in the freezer. If you slice them, buy the biggest clams you can get.

Ah okay, so to confirm: Already frozen clams bought from the store CAN be sliced up as meal prep, put back into the freezer and then later on be used as food, correct? If so, I would love to give my fish something new.