Clam spawn

[mr.maroonsalty]

My clam is making a sexual mess of my tank; the first bit looked liquid, now it looks granular. Are they hermaphrodites? pictures later...

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Certainly eggs now; the tank was murky, but had no sign of precipitate or solids; now its full of what looks like a millions of microbubbles. Hope things don't suffocate :l

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Congrats, it must be happy. Can you get any photos?

I'd skim wet for a day or two, run some carbon, and do a water change or two.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Gac is 24/7; my skimmer started going nuts so I dialed it down, and you should see the goo on the water top of the cup...ewwww! I have pictures, and was lucky to catch the end of the spawn, but saw the egg event. I wonder if anyone is lucky enough to get larval settling/development in a straight forward reef tank?

 

[jched824]

i think i recall hearing off of planet earth on the discovery channel that it takes 4-5 years for a clam to develop after a spawn, i could be wrong but for there to be a survivor you might need some luck on your side

 

[TechStar]

Cant wait to see pics of this, ive never seen it!

 

[superkat]

bringing true meaning to the saying, "Happy as a Clam".

 

[wetbehindears]

Kat-I think that saying is about a different type of clam.

My clam spawned last year in my tank it was nasty but all fish went nuts for it. Id do a water change within the next few days.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I almost missed this stage; I was playing puzzle on the porch and noticed the milky water, but didn't get up for a few minutes:

This stage happened for at least twenty minutes:

Eeeeewww, it was wc day, and I had just cleaned the cup:

 

[TechStar]

Wow, thats crazy! At least you know its happy!

 

[superkat]

no, brandon...i think that expression covers this as well....given the addition of the pictures. WOW.

 

[solRNY]

great picture, skimmate double smelly i bet

 

[chrisqueenz]

Is that your only clam in that tank?

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Its the only one. At this point everything passes the "looks good" test, and maybe just move up my scheduled wc from next monday to friday.

Wow, thats crazy! At least you know its happy!
...or about to croak.

A couple things have happened lately that I don't know played a role or not, First, my temps had been swinging more than most like up to 85/86, and yesterday was a cool day for the tank, only climbing to near 80. Saturday, I accidently left my drip running (instead of dripping) when i left, and dumped about an extra 1 1/2 gal topoff into the tank, causing a minor flood which wasn't as big a deal as I'm dosing baking soda in my topoff water thus, driving my ALK up 3 dKh in only a few hours. I also did a regular weekly water change that afternoon.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

kewl

great pix!

 

[Just2Many]

Does it really take years to grow a small clam?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

More like a week or two before they settle out and attach to the bottom. I can't imagine it's THAT long after that before they're sale-able size, otherwise aquaculturing them would be cost prohibitive.

 

[Just2Many]

More like a week or two before they settle out and attach to the bottom. I can't imagine it's THAT long after that before they're sale-able size, otherwise aquaculturing them would be cost prohibitive.

Thanks! I looked high and low for this answer and couldn't find anything.

 

[tmz]

Nice picture. Thanks