Captive raised clams?

pamela-troy

Premium Member
Is there anyone who has captive raised clams? If so where can i get one? And does anyone have some in their tank that i can see. What are you feeding? Where are you placing itââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦etc.

Troy
 
There are "farmed" clams, not captive raised to my knowledge....The farms are in the Solomons and Marshall islands...maybe some other locations as well...
 
Captive raised is a tricky group of words.

There is no one that I am aware of that is successfully captive breeding clams. But a lot of folks, get their clams from ORA sources, and ORA gets the clams from a great farm in the Marshall Islands and keeps them under aquarium conditions for a while before the sell to there dealers.

I have noticed much better survival rates from ORA clams than from any other source.

Rob
 
ORA clams are Captive Bred (CB). The Broodstock (either wild caught or CB) are held in captivity, and spawned in captivity. The larva are reared in captivity and the settled clams are grown in captivity.

The other term often confused with CB is CR or captive raised. This is where larva or post metamorphic (just settled) fish are collected from the wild and "grown up" in captivity. Now, this is possible with some fish. But I would say that it would be hard to do with giant clams. It would mean going out into the clams natural habitate and "collecting" them just after they have settled out of the plankton stage. It would take a lot of hunting to collect enough 1 to 2 mm clams to make it worth ones wild to do this.

As far as where to get ORA clams? Just ask your LFS to order them. If they are not already customers, they can call and make inquiries (888) 317-3276.

Cheers! :)
 
oama, correct me if I'm wrong, but the clams are still raised in the ocean? I think that when I hear captive bred, I'm thinking, big vats somewhere with little fishies and clams swimming around. I've read Knop's book and seen the pix of captive spawning et al, but my understanding is that while that is part of the management, the grow out etc...is conducted in "raceways" in the ocean. Not that I don't commend the effort to reduce environmental impact, but it's sort of a semantic issue w/terms like CB, CR, TR and "farmed"...BTW, I love your clams and do own a few.
 
They are grown in raceways, but the raceways are on land. If you placed these guys to grow up in the reef flats, they would end up on someones dinner plate in short order.
 
Everything you ever wanted to know about starting your own clam farm:

http://www.ctsa.org/upload/publication/CTSA_143631672855187292852.pdf

One of the cooler articles out there on the subject. Let me know if interested - I have a few others as well.

BTW, most clams sold in the U.S. are captive raised in farms NOT captured from the wild. Captive raised clams are treated differently by CITES, and given better survivability they can be cheaper than clams caught in the wild. Most clam farms were started to help replenish wild stocks that had been depleted in the wild due to overharvest for food. However the trade in ornamentals is much more lucrative for clam farms than the trade in food clams. The prettiest clams are reserved for the pet trade, while the plainer clams are harvested for food.
 
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