Is my clam spawning?

[Kenfuzed]

I think one of my clams is spawning!

I took the clam out as it filled my 150 gallon tank with white milk in just a few minutes.

 

[Konadog]

Sure looks like it. Keep an eye on your water parameters, and watch your skimmer.

 

[Kenfuzed]

The spawning lasted about 30 minutes. Just after taking the first pictures I quickly moved the clam to a large bucket and kept changing the water until the spawning stopped. I moved the clam back to the main tank and within 15 minutes it started spawning again so I've moved him back to a bucket. The clam also now appears to be gaping. I've had this clam in my tank for over 5 years and have never seen anything like this.

 

[Bebo77]

lol in and out in and out.... man i need to spay/neuter my clams...

 

[Konadog]

:lmao:

Your lucky to have caught it. I have heard of people loosing tanks due to spawning events.

 

[Kenfuzed]

Now my giant squamosa clam seems to be reacting by spawning, but not as much as the crocea clam did. I'm really hoping this big clam doesn't start since he is too big for a bucket (longer than a football).

Should I cut the lights to reduce any stress on the other clams? The spawning clam is out of the tank but the other 2 croceas, 1 medium squamosa, and giant squamosa are still in there and I don't want to crash my whole tank.

 

[Konadog]

I don't think the lights on or off will help. I would start making up water to do a water change as it sounds like your other clams may do the same. Set your skimmer up to skim very wet, that will help pull some stuff out.

 

[Kenfuzed]

Thanks Ken. I've already done a 15 gallon water change tonight and I will do another change tomorrow. Water is being mixed right now. I'll also change my carbon tomorrow.

 

[GinaSofia]

Ken..

Sounds like you're in for a long night.You really do have to keep a close eye on this.Like Ken said, o2manyfish had a mess on his hands from his clam(s) spawning in his tank.

 

[Konadog]

Good luck, sounds like your on top of things as best you can be. Be glad you were able to pull the clam out when you did or it would be an even bigger mess.
Did you notice if your smaller ones joined in?

 

[Kenfuzed]

Well it's been a couple hours and everything seems to have settled down. The spawning clam is back in the tank and not gaping as bad. My Orp reading is climbing again after it had dropped from 405 to 280. Tank parameters appear ok but now I'm a little concerned that my large opportunistic brittle star is hover in the vicinity.

 

[wakeupdrowzy]

wow, i didn't know that when clam spawn it Kill everything in the tank, ima sell my clam off now

 

[Kenfuzed]

One of the smaller ones did join in for a few minutes but stopped as soon as I removed the offender. The really big clam continued for a while but it may have just been annoyed.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7073134#post7073134 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wakeupdrowzy
wow, i didn't know that when clam spawn it Kill everything in the tank, ima sell my clam off now

I've had clams in my tank for years without any spawning. I think it may not be a common event and won't be in any rush to get rid of my clams.

 

[Kenfuzed]

Good news this morning. I checked on the tank and everything seems to be looking good. The clam who spawned is not gaping and water parameters are in check. The Orp level came back up to 380 without turning back on the ozone so I'm confident that the other readings should be good when I check them again this afternoon.

 

[jjirsa78]

Curious as I don't have any clams myself: what's the cause of the typical crash? Is it just too much organic matter shoved into the water column that throws everything off? Skimmer goes nuts, ammonia spike? What's the deal?

Is there any way to actually contain the spawn in a meaningful and beneficial manner to encourage/allow reproduction in a reasonably sized (say, 200G+) tank?

 

[Konadog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7075177#post7075177 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jjirsa78
Curious as I don't have any clams myself: what's the cause of the typical crash? Is it just too much organic matter shoved into the water column that throws everything off? Skimmer goes nuts, ammonia spike? What's the deal?

Exactly! Dump a ton of pollutants into the tank at once and leave it overnight and see what you wake up too.

Ken, glad to here your tank made it fine! Catching it made all the difference.

 

[Kenfuzed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7075177#post7075177 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jjirsa78
Curious as I don't have any clams myself: what's the cause of the typical crash? Is it just too much organic matter shoved into the water column that throws everything off? Skimmer goes nuts, ammonia spike? What's the deal?

Is there any way to actually contain the spawn in a meaningful and beneficial manner to encourage/allow reproduction in a reasonably sized (say, 200G+) tank?

I'm not familiar with how they do it in a farming environment, but our captive tanks are not designed to handle a spawning event. Since many of our tanks (as hobbyists) are setup to support a mixed bioload of coral, fish, and clams, the spawning event dumps a large amount of organic matter into the water column. This sudden introduction of organics will act as a pollutant and trigger a nitrogen cycle to natural occur.

I was stunned at just how much this one clam could produce in a matter of minutes. It was also fascinating to be witness to this.