Marc Daniels
Premium Member
There was a discussion regarding Koden's flame scallop that he posted a picture of in his thread titled 'Carbon Fiber Tripod..."
A few weeks back I had an e-mail exchange with Angela Dukeman, she is a specialist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute where they are performing Stock Enhancement Research.
One of the animals that they performed a research study of was Lyma scabra...aka the Flame Scallop. In her study presentation, and through personal communication with her, this is what I learned.
1) The Flame Scallop in all likelihood has a lifespan of approximately 3 years, maybe 4 at the max.
2) They kept theirs alive in the lab on a diet of Isochrysis and Tetraselmis phyto which they ate readily.
3) After keeping them almost a year in her lab, they all started slowing dying off. The largest were in the were in the 2.5" - 3" size range.
4) Flame scallops less than 1.6" were predominantly male (83%), those [greater than or equal to] 1.6" SH were mostly female (71%), and 4% were in sexual transition near 40 mm SH.
The rest of this is theory that I have gleamed from other personal communications and published research papers. Let's say that the lifespan is 4 year to the day. Some scientists think that it takes a long time for the scallop to reach the 1.6" diameter where it then turn from male to female. Some fell that it may take as much a 65%-80% of the scallops total lifespan to reach this size. If that is true, then the scallops could be 2.6 - 3.2 years old before they become female. Once the scallop becomes female, the growth rate increases dramatically so that it is capable of producing a much larger number of offspring.
Collectors are often collecting the larger scallop sizes because the opinion is that they look nicer and sale better. Well, if they are collecting scallops in the 2.5"+ range, there could possibly be as little as a few months left in it's natural lifespan. Maybe the overall issue with the bad rep that scallops get in captivity, is the fact that the majority of specimens being collected are in the last 1/4 - 1/3 of their natural lifespan.
They do need to feed almost continuously, and the more varied the phyto diet the better. Something like Phyto-Feast would be ideal. The feeding issue would also contribute to it's bad rep.
A few weeks back I had an e-mail exchange with Angela Dukeman, she is a specialist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute where they are performing Stock Enhancement Research.
One of the animals that they performed a research study of was Lyma scabra...aka the Flame Scallop. In her study presentation, and through personal communication with her, this is what I learned.
1) The Flame Scallop in all likelihood has a lifespan of approximately 3 years, maybe 4 at the max.
2) They kept theirs alive in the lab on a diet of Isochrysis and Tetraselmis phyto which they ate readily.
3) After keeping them almost a year in her lab, they all started slowing dying off. The largest were in the were in the 2.5" - 3" size range.
4) Flame scallops less than 1.6" were predominantly male (83%), those [greater than or equal to] 1.6" SH were mostly female (71%), and 4% were in sexual transition near 40 mm SH.
The rest of this is theory that I have gleamed from other personal communications and published research papers. Let's say that the lifespan is 4 year to the day. Some scientists think that it takes a long time for the scallop to reach the 1.6" diameter where it then turn from male to female. Some fell that it may take as much a 65%-80% of the scallops total lifespan to reach this size. If that is true, then the scallops could be 2.6 - 3.2 years old before they become female. Once the scallop becomes female, the growth rate increases dramatically so that it is capable of producing a much larger number of offspring.
Collectors are often collecting the larger scallop sizes because the opinion is that they look nicer and sale better. Well, if they are collecting scallops in the 2.5"+ range, there could possibly be as little as a few months left in it's natural lifespan. Maybe the overall issue with the bad rep that scallops get in captivity, is the fact that the majority of specimens being collected are in the last 1/4 - 1/3 of their natural lifespan.
They do need to feed almost continuously, and the more varied the phyto diet the better. Something like Phyto-Feast would be ideal. The feeding issue would also contribute to it's bad rep.
