Gut Loading Bivalves

[Fish Bowl]

I'm sure quite a few people here use live (or previously live) bivalves (Clams, Mussels, and Oysters) to feed some of their fish and I was wondering if anyone has ever tried gut loading these before?
Particularly with Spirulina Powder (Maybe some kind of reef food might work too?)
I know in the restaurant industry some live bivalves are fed corn meal to clear them out of some sand.
Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Fish Bowl]

Since nobody else has tried it, I guess I will!
Worst case scenario I'll just be wasting about a table spoon or so of spirulina.

[rhdoug]

I don't believe they can eat that, or that feeding them at all is a must. As long as you feed your fish and have adequate lighting they should be fine.

[Saratj1]

bi valve foie gras?

[Fish Bowl]

I don't believe they can eat that, or that feeding them at all is a must. As long as you feed your fish and have adequate lighting they should be fine.

The prince edward island mussels/little neck clams can't eat spirulina? I would assume it would work just fine since they are filter feeders (not talking about croceas/maximas/other photosynthetic bivalves but rather bivalves that we feed to puffers,angels,etc)

Not to sound rude, but I don't see how lighting has anything to do with the fish that are commonly fed un-blended/chopped clams as part of a good diet (unless you meant the other bivalves previously mentioned)

[rhdoug]

I wasn't referring to light having anything to do with the fish, only clams. I can't comment on the specific mussels or clams' feeding abilities you mentioned either. And you don't sound rude, so no worries! I didn't understand what your initial question was regarding gut loading those animals, althought I do gut load insects to feed reptiles so I get it now. Good luck with your search, hopefully someone can help out with this.

[billsreef]

The prince edward island mussels/little neck clams can't eat spirulina? I would assume it would work just fine since they are filter feeders (not talking about croceas/maximas/other photosynthetic bivalves but rather bivalves that we feed to puffers,angels,etc)

Not to sound rude, but I don't see how lighting has anything to do with the fish that are commonly fed un-blended/chopped clams as part of a good diet (unless you meant the other bivalves previously mentioned)

The spirulina will be the wrong particle size. The bivalves will simply concentrate what they filter out and quickly eject it in nice little packages called pseudofeces ;) They will need to be fed phyto's such as Isochyrsus and Tetraselmis (to name a couple) in order to actually gut load them.

[Fish Bowl]

bi valve foie gras?
Man that's going to be hard to get out :crazy1:
The spirulina will be the wrong particle size. The bivalves will simply concentrate what they filter out and quickly eject it in nice little packages called pseudofeces ;) They will need to be fed phyto's such as Isochyrsus and Tetraselmis (to name a couple) in order to actually gut load them.

Hmm that's pretty interesting. I wonder how the whole cornmeal thing works then...

[billsreef]

The cornmeal thing is about replacing grains of sand that end up sitting inside the shell and neck of the clam with cornmeal ;) You can also simply purge the sand by hanging them in a mesh bag off a dock :)