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Clams, The Best Food for your Reef

Paul B

NJRC Member
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.

 
I put them in my homemade food mix. Wish I could throw them in on the half shell, but that might be hazardous for my tridacnids

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Paul B

NJRC Member
I am sure mussels are also very good but I don't have any nutrition facts on them.
They are also much cheaper than clams as many people don't like to eat them. I eat them but prefer clams or oysters

 
Thanks for this post Paul!

I was inspired by your previous post about clams (from another forum, I think), and I started feeding my tank with it. But I guess I was doing it wrong as I was chopping the clam, I should be shaving them! :)

I’m jealous of your FAT Copperband Butterfly!
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
I also found this while researching. It came from "The Paleo Diet" which is probably not the most scientific of research organizations but I am pretty sure the list of nutrients was devised by some Government source. (or PeeWee Hermans diary)
Of course these values are for people.

"The Paleo Diet"
Clams: A variety of edible clams are out there (hard-shell, soft-shell, razor clams, and surf clams, just to name a few!), and they tend to be particularly high in vitamin B12, selenium, iron, and manganese. That makes them excellent for nerve and blood cell health, treating or preventing iron-deficiency anemia, protecting against cellular damage, forming connective tissue and sex hormones, and supporting carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Each 100 grams of cooked clams (mixed species) contains:
148 calories (2 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbohydrate, and 26 grams of protein)
396 mg of omega-3 fats
1648% of the RDA for vitamin B12
91% of the RDA for selenium
155% of the RDA for iron
37% of the RDA for vitamin C
50% of the RDA for manganese
34% of the RDA for phosphorus
18% of the RDA for potassium
18% of the RDA for zinc
34% of the RDA for copper
10% of the RDA for thiamin
25% of the RDA for niacin
11% of the RDA for vitamin A
Smaller amounts (between 4 and 9%) of the RDA for vitamin B6, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, calcium, and sodium
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
You can buy clam cubes but we don't always have to feed something from an LFS with a nice picture of an anglefish on the front. Those commercial foods are frozen to a much lower temperature than out home freezers so I would assume most of the bacteria is dead which you may like. I want living bacteria so I buy fresh, live clams. But that's just me
 
Was inspired by this thread to make some fish food at home too. The wife and I write a food blog, so naturally there was a photoshoot. (www.waisik.com).

All the ingredients cost about $7.20181114_193046.jpg

The mix included scallops, littleneck clams, shrimp, salmon and fish roe.

20181114_190235.jpg

I wanted it to be a little chunky, so I used some kitchen knives and beat it into a paste.
20181114_190853.jpg

Purchased these "nice cubes" trays. And the mixture ended up being a perfect fit to one tray.

20181114_191953.jpg
Now it's sitting in the freezer.

Thanks for the inspiration! Hopefully the fish will enjoy this.
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
Looks delicious, I had that for dinner last night. But if you left out the scallops and shrimp, it would be a much more nutritious food. Those table shrimp are only the muscle as are the scallops and have little nutrition for fish. The clams are really all you need. The Salmon isn't bad but the clams are still much better as that is also only the muscle of the fish. The fish roe is great. :D
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
If you want to give them a variety, (that they don't need by the way). You can use clams, oysters, mussels and fish eggs.
 
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