PDA

View Full Version : live oysters?


firebirdcrzy
12/31/2008, 06:59 AM
Living by the Chesapeake bay, every year I injoy purchasing a few bushels of live oysters to eat. There are always a few small seedlings attatched to the bigger ones. My question is, do you all think it would be safe to try to put a few of the seedlings in my tank? Could there be any pros or cons to doing this?
I have seen on ebay where oyster seedling clusters are being sold for aquarium use. Please give all opinions on this. Thank you in advance.

smsreefer
12/31/2008, 07:13 AM
Hello,
You will run a risk of putting parasites ect. in you tank buy doing so .
Im not sure about the possibility of using a dip to decrease your risk .You might research that possibility .
That being said, I get shrimp from the boats a couple of hours from being caught and will save any eggs to feed the tank .
Never had any problems . I do rinse first in RO .

billdogg
12/31/2008, 07:16 AM
I would thing that they would be a colder water species, and propably not be able to adapt to the warmer temps

Whisperer
12/31/2008, 07:20 AM
I think it would be a challenge to keep them healthy because they require constant supply of phytoplankton and lots of waterflow to deliver these phyto to them.

smsreefer
12/31/2008, 07:25 AM
Oh yea , I forgot about the cold water up there !:D

eyesinthedrk
12/31/2008, 07:39 AM
here on the gulf coast we have oysters in waters warm enough to spawn hurricanes, as for constant feedings they spend a good chunk of time out of the water during low tide, i think the hardest part of an oyster and the like would be knowing if its alive or dead, but if your biofiltration is up to snuff and its just a few seedlings your tank should be able it handel it

Whisperer
12/31/2008, 08:04 AM
Oysters can stay alive out of water for quite sometime but they do need to feed once submerged. If they stay submerged all the time, they will feed (well, they have nothing else to do :)).

WaterKeeper
12/31/2008, 08:12 AM
The ones found in Chesapeake Bay are the Eastern Oyster, also called the Virginia Oyster, and are a temperate species. I'm not sure how high a temperature they will tolerate. Since they are commercially important there is a ton of info on them. Try doing a web search for Crassostrea virginica and you should get answers to whether they can be kept in a reef tank.

Juruense
12/31/2008, 09:47 AM
I have a cherry stone little neck clam in my tank from a batch of clam chowder I made a coupe months ago. I spared him from going in the soup and he has done well ever since. Oysters are more challenging to keep than clams however IMHO.

WaterKeeper
12/31/2008, 10:09 AM
Since a little neck is just a small Qauhog clam doesn't it need to burrow? Most of that group of clams usually do.

Sorry I don't know too much about keeping oysters and edible clams but they are not all that attractive and not commonly added to a marine tank. However, if you like them, why not. You may need to do some research on their environmental needs before adding them to a tank.

greenbean36191
12/31/2008, 11:41 AM
You're not going to have luck with oysters in a reef tank.

Like eyesinthedrk said, this is the same species you find up and down the East and Gulf coasts and they tolerate temperatures comparable to what you find in reef tanks just fine.

Feeding is a big issue though. They need looots of phytoplankton. At the lab where I took undergrad classes there was a shellfish production facility that specialized in growing these guys. Despite having a dedicated phytoplankton lab that produced several dozen gallons of phyto a day, they still had to buy additional phyto from elsewhere to keep the oysters well fed.

WaterKeeper
12/31/2008, 12:00 PM
And there we have someone who knows what they are talking about. No home grown oysters on the half shell it appears. ;)

firebirdcrzy
12/31/2008, 04:32 PM
Thanks for all the input people. I belive I will leave this alone as I also came to realize that the waters around here are much cooler even in the summer then most reef tanks are kept.
I know from my water sking experince that only the top few inches of the rivers here are barly reaching 70 degrees in the summer. I usually have to wear a wet suit just to stay warm from prolong playing in the waters.
I only came up with the idea of putting them in the tank last night after sipping a few beers and roasting a few oysters over the wood stove.

WaterKeeper
12/31/2008, 04:45 PM
:lol:

Well if you were planning on commercial oyster culture you might want to consider a tad bigger tank than a 30. ;)

Elysia
12/31/2008, 05:17 PM
Greenbean -- do you think that I should try to move the mushrooms off these "hitchhikers?"

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/168303P1000028.JPG

I bought the mushrooms like this. There is also a large baracle on the one side that is alive.

WaterKeeper
12/31/2008, 07:42 PM
If you want to get the pearl, heck yes! :D

In looking up a little on Oysters I see they filter almost 48 gallons per day of water. I think it might be a wise option next time we have a massive power outage in the nation.


Newbie: Waterkeeper my power is out what do I do?

Waterkeeper: Go to the grocery and see if they sell live oysters.