I just remembered I've only tasted wild clams steamed so far (though I've tried farmed clams on the half shell and recall liking them somewhat). Wild clams taste great to me when lightly steamed--much better than raw oysters--so if they taste worse than oysters when raw that's another reason for me to not bother with raw clams, in addition to being too tiny to bother smashing open, although maybe the rotting technique would be worth a try.

Steamed mussels taste better to me than just about any other seafood, which was why I was surprised at how nasty they tasted raw. Maybe I'll try the rotting suggestion.

I think I may wash or soak the raw oysters in tap water to get rid of the salty taste. Why do people say to not do this and why do they say to be careful not to spill that nasty saltwater? It reminds me of when I was forced to gargle saltwater as a kid when I got a cold--yuck!

 My experience is that it's best to eat the raw mussels(and other raw shellfish) within 2-3 days after leaving them in the fridge. Left longer than that, the flesh of the shellfish starts shrinking heavily so that, after 10 days, the flesh is a pale shadow of its former self(no doubt due to water leaking away gradually along with multiple nutrients in it). I actually like the taste of fresh,raw mussels now though it took time for me to get used to such anacquired taste.

Incidentally, when getting used to the raw mussels, what I would commonly do is crack them open with a metal walnut-cracker, then tear the flesh out with my teeth and put the flesh in a glass. After depositing a very large number of raw mussel-flesh in the pint-glass, I would upend the glass with my hand covering the top, and leach the saltwater from it that way.

Sure, only live mussels are allowed for sale in the markets, here in France too.

As Tyler, I often eat them fresh and live and I like it this way, in particular the little bitterness. Yet they get usually much more tasty after 2 or 3 days or sometimes more in the fridge. As long as they smell and taste attractive I think we can eat them and I do it and have never observed any adverse effects. On the contrary, they are very easily digested. When left in the fridge for a longer time they either more or less dry and there is not much left to eat, as pointed out by Tyler, or they rot to such an extent that they smell repulsive if the atmosphere in the fridge is too wet. At this latter stage I don't eat them of course.

I can't see why such "aged" mussels might be more harmful to raw paleo dieters than high meat or "aged" meat.  

I've never tried to do so and always left them in their shells, RawZi. In this way I don't have to open them, most of them open by themselves after a couple of days. They then simultanenously dry and rot slowly in aerobic conditions when stored in a fairly thin layer with the juices drained.

I guess that cut into pieces out of shell and soaked in their own juices in a container they'll rot much faster with probably different bacteria in anaerobic conditions. I don't know how long this remains edible. When out of shell, maybe an alternative option is just to age by drying a little bit the whole soft part of the animal without cutting in pieces.    

That would mean using London tapwater which isn't exactly healthy, I would never consider washing any of my raw foods in it.

I doubt it.
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