How to keep seafood alive?

[ichthyogeek]

Does anybody know how to keep clams/mussels/blue crabs alive? Given that I'm currently in a landlocked area, I can't imagine that they come in pretty healthy, but I'd like to experiment with gut loading bivalves before shucking them and freezing the meat. I imagine that I'd need to keep them alive for about 4-5 days: 1 day to clear sediments out, and 3-4 days to really gut load them with phytoplankton and/or rotifers (unsure if they'll eat rotifers).

One of the big problems would be in just acclimating them. The local asian store has the bivalves under running water (unsure if fresh or salt), but I typically buy them dry (no water)...and I'm not sure how awkward it would be for me to bring a refractometer/hydrometer with me to the store and/or ask for a water sample...so what do I do to prevent the bivalves from clamming up on me and dying due to saline shock?

The other big problem is with basic care. I know that I should feed them phyto (and/or rotifers?). But how hard should I feed them? And should I incorporate some form of filtration? I know they like clean water filled with phyto, but do I just use a filter and hope for the best? I obviously can't use a protein skimmer, since it'll suck up all the phyto, but what else can I do to keep them alive?

I've played around with keeping PEI Mussels before, but that was with lab facilities (they were being used as feed for starfish) and a cold room available to me. And the results were kinda 50/50. I was able to feed them with Rhodomonas phytoplankton and not have them smell like they were dying on me, and they did have some byssal thread attachment (unsure if that's a sign of health or not...). But if I left them for a day too long, they'd croak and the cold room would stink (and lab personnel knew exactly who to blame...haha )

The crab is more of a question of how do I get the meat out of the shell without cooking it...I assume I can just dispatch it ala lobster dispatchin (knife through the head quickly), but my seafood extraction skills are lacking...

 

[SDK]

I believe you would need a commercial or lab style chilled unit to accomplish what you are trying to do. However, depending on what you are feeding I don’t think you need to.

I’ve been feeding little neck clams and mussels to my fish for years. I just buy them fresh packed in ice and put them straight into the freezer. To feed I pry them open, rinse and drop in. I have never tried to gut load bivalves and I don’t think the effort would be worth the trouble. If you can find them alive and smelling good, they should be just about as fresh as what someone closer to the coast would get.

I’ve never tried crabs although that could be an interesting treat on occasion. I would probably just crack fresh or frozen legs in half and let the fish pick the meat out themselves. You’d get some bonus behavioral enrichment that way. If you are trying to make a frozen mix, extracting the meat is not too hard. Cutting the leg sections open lengthwise with a small pair of sharp scissors works well.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I agree that I don't need to. But I for sure want to. Since I'm going to be grating the clam flesh into a DIY recipe (trying not to blend it because gel is a nightmare), I figure I might as well try to see if I can get them to survive and feed.