Has anyone been successful in keeping normal black/brown rock muscles or oysters, the type you find on the East coast? If you have, how long have you kept them alive for?
Keeping Rock mussels and oysters
- Thread starter Stewart
- Start date
lindsay pollard
pipefish
Stewart ive had a black mussel in my tank for the past 6 months and its still going strong
Mike
Retired Moderator
Stewart, they are very good at removing excess nutrients etc and a a great asset to your sump, but they are delicate and need acclimatising slowly, if you need help with acclimatising, just ask.
Mike, any advice in acclimatising them please? Have you tried rock oysters? Which are hardier?
ive kept black mussels without any trouble. I put them in when they were about 5cm long and didnt use any special acclimitization. I have a few in my sump and they doing well there, had them for about 8 months.
Ive had oyster appear in my tank and they seem to do really well at first, however they always die/get eaten before getting really big.
Ive had oyster appear in my tank and they seem to do really well at first, however they always die/get eaten before getting really big.
Mike
Retired Moderator
The advice for any creature we add to our tanks is roughly the same, equalise the temp and SG slowly (much slower for inverts) by adding tank water to the bag, either by constant drip or by using a turkey baster adding little amounts every few minutes until balanced.
I haven't tried them myself (i live in the UK so we can't use coastal mussels) but i know some reefers that have had success with oysters purchased from the supermarket.
I picked up a few "decorations" that washed up after some heavy seas a few weeks back. i added these decorations and found out that some mussels were alive and have been been in the tank for 2 weeks now.