Black Pearls (1 Viewer)

[BrianPlankis]

What is the lifespan of an oyster? Barring any stupid mistakes by me that kills it prematurely?

 

[Cakepro]

Oysters would actually be primo reef inhabitants...they'd do a better job than a plant-packed refugium for cleaning our aquariums, that's for sure.

Oysters in a reef

 

[Guest]

Cakepro-
Youre right, they do filter water better than just about anything.

 

[jamesw]

They say the average is 50 gallons per day. The thing is, they eat all of the suspended solids in the water, be that floculated gunk, plankton, etc. They don't actually "absorb" protein or nitrates from the water. Personally, I'd rather have the flocs and plankton in my tank water and use the skimmer to remove disolved organics.

David Eakin had 120 oyster reef tank set up at his house for a while and the oysters did pretty well. I'll have to ask him how long they lasted.

Cheers
James

 

[fishcraze]

that article is very interesting, Cakepro... I may try to keep an oyster in my fuge now Also see people on the RC thread said they kept mussles too.. wonder if those are the live black shell mussels that are sold at Asian markets?

 

[cparka23]

not to dash anybody's hopes, but pearls vary in the time they take to form. they are the resulting response to irritants (such as grains of sand) entering the oyster, which then secretes some stuff to glop it up and solidify it. i guess it depends on how much you irritate your oyster, but it definitely takes years to get a sizeable pearl. on top of that, pearls can come with imperfections that bar their use in jewelry. not sure how that works with black pearls though.

they also do better with feedings of invertibrate larvae, in addition to phytoplankton.