Tropical Mussels

[SeaFeverH2O]

Am I the only one that collects mussels? I think they're fascinating and I get the guys at my LFS to pull off the random hitchhikers that come in on traded in corals but I've only managed to come across 3 so far. I like my little colony I've gathered but wonder why they're not raised and sold and there's barely any information online specifically about tropical mussels. I'm curious to see if the will breed in my tank and love seeing them move spots, they're so cool. I run a dive boat in New England and I'm interested to see if the ones up here, if taken from being very very young could survive in a reef tank? I totally get the temperature difference and the cold water up here vs. warm tropical water, but our mussels in the northeast survive tide pools which can easily reach 80°F throughout the summer so.....

 

[Subsea]

I keep several different bivalves (scallops & clams), however mine are subtropical from Gulf of Mexico. I feed cold water mussels to my reef tank and as an experiment introduced live mussels to display tank. While mussels may survive warm water in tide pools, they also get covered by cold Atlantic water when tides rise. In my reef tank, as mussels died, hermit crabs enjoyed the feast.

 

[SeaFeverH2O]

I keep several different bivalves (scallops & clams), however mine are subtropical from Gulf of Mexico. I feed cold water mussels to my reef tank and as an experiment introduced live mussels to display tank. While mussels may survive warm water in tide pools, they also get covered by cold Atlantic water when tides rise. In my reef tank, as mussels died, hermit crabs enjoyed the feast.

Where did you get scallops from? Just picked off the seabed in the Gulf? I run a dive boat that goes scallop diving, I would LOVE a little scallop in my tank, but harvesting laws say we can only take scallop minimum of be 3.5''

 

[Nano_Man]

I think temperature has a lot to do with it and them getting the correct nutrients from your reef . I have kept scallops mussels claims and oyster. Which overtime fade away. Most of them are plankton feeder but you would need a endless supply going into your reef . I have and do keep limpets for cleaning the glass and a fine job they do . Adding supplements keeps them and sponges growing

 

[Subsea]

Where did you get scallops from? Just picked off the seabed in the Gulf? I run a dive boat that goes scallop diving, I would LOVE a little scallop in my tank, but harvesting laws say we can only take scallop minimum of be 3.5''

Flame scallops from Gulf of Mexico. While I buy them from online vendors; turkey clams, flame scallops and oysters come attacked to maricultured diver collected live rock from offshore leases in 30’ of water. Also, I run temperature at 75 degrees.

However, I was told by an Oceaneering diver that lived in Tampa Bay; during certain times of the year, Bay scallops hop along the sandy bottom by the thousands.