well both your points prove valid. i do know however that when clams die there shells open up and they can be consumed more easily by fish, but cams point proves valid also for what if the clam burries under the sand and dies, how does the shell open and how does it get consumed?
i've caught this in China a lot. They live on sand or swarm and they are hard to open. When they die fish will takle their shell and eat them that is true, but sometimes even if its dead shell is still very hard to open. Mine always die because i put them in a bucket or small pond without air pump/filter. Biggest i've caught was 8 inches long, you can provide them a thin layer of sand and a filter, they should be fine. Don't know how long it can survive outta water but my home to river in China was an hour trip, it always lived.
i've caught this in China a lot. They live on sand or swarm and they are hard to open. When they die fish will takle their shell and eat them that is true, but sometimes even if its dead shell is still very hard to open. Mine always die because i put them in a bucket or small pond without air pump/filter. Biggest i've caught was 8 inches long, you can provide them a thin layer of sand and a filter, they should be fine. Don't know how long it can survive outta water but my home to river in China was an hour trip, it always lived.