Maxima Clam laying eggs

todd williams

New member
I was lucky to be home to see one of my clams, apparantly, laying eggs. It has been in my tank for 10-12 years and I have never seen this behavior before. The clam would pulse about once a minute and eject the eggs. Mostly from the output tube but also from the input side as well. My tank is now cloudy from all the eggs and my green chromy school is having a field day gobbling them up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOQrDB0d1fU
 
Last edited:
it's not egg. quoting fatherree". I say sperm and eggs because fully mature tridacnids are both male and female at the same time, which means they are simultaneous hermaphrodites. Thus, they can make both and spawn both in the same event. They have to be fully mature to spawn both though, as tridacnids develop testes first with quite some time passing before they develop ovaries. So, sub-mature clams may spawn, but release only sperm."
maybe a half million sperm. he goes on to say
"So, they do spawn in aquaria from time to time, but this can lead to serious trouble in the closed confines on a tank if you don't take immediate action. In fact, if the gametes aren't cleaned up quickly, there's a chance that a spawning event can lead to the death of everything in the tank!"
Later"he problem is that they'll all die in an aquarium and basically rot. They'll do it quickly, at that.

The gametes will start to die in about an hour, if not sooner, and because they all die and begin to decay relatively simultaneously, they can potentially cause oxygen levels in a tank to drop so low that all the fishes and other tank inhabitants may drop dead within a couple of hours. If eggs are released along with sperm and some of them are fertilized, they'll die too, due to the over abundance of sperm. In the wild, the gametes are immediately diluted into millions of gallons of seawater, but this obviously isn't going to happen in an aquarium. The problem is that when too many sperm try to fertilize a single egg, it kills that egg (it's called polyspermy). The precipitous drop in oxygen levels, when the gametes decay can also cause a spike in ammonia and nutrient concentrations, as well. That's bad too, as too much ammonia can also kill everything in an aquarium, and increased nutrient levels invariably lead to outbreaks of unwanted algae. Obviously, there's nothing good about any of that."
clean out the tank!!!!! before you lose it!!!!
 
WHAT!!!
I don't think I agree with you there. My tank is a 220 gallon mixed reef setup. As I mentioned I have had this clam atleast 10 but more likely about 12 years. I have never witnessed this event before but that does not mean that it has never happened. It is not really a big clam but certainly bigger than when I got it. If anything it is wider.

The egg laying lasted about an hour. It pulsed about once a minute or so. The water cleared in a hour or so after that. My Bubble King Skimmer produced very little extra skimmate after the event. There is a slightly different odor to the skimmate. I cleaned it right after the event. Not much skimmate. It is now 10hrs post event and my tank is crystal clear again. Skimmer is working normally and everything looks perfectly normal. I have 8 Chromis in my tank and they seemed to go nuts eating the eggs or sperm. Which ever it was. The tank was full of it. The tank almost looked cloudy with what looked like very fine bubbles. I will check chemistry in the morning but don't see anything abnormal now.

I can always tell when something is not right in my tank. My corals never lie. So far so good. I would say.

Thanks for the info. I will update if anything unusual happens. I will probably do a water change if anything looks unusual in the morning.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the link. I have two clams in my tank but honestly I know very little about them. I put a little Zeofood7, DT's, Oyster Eggs, Coral Phyton in my tank occasionally all of which I believe are good for clams. I feed these at random but other than that I basically let them feed from the tank and they seem happy and healthy.

You have encouraged me to do a little reading.

Tank looks great this morning no signs of anything out of the ordinary.

I don't even own a ammonia test kit anymore but I don't think I need it.

Does anyone know is this a annual thing? How often do they do this?
I would have thought they did this at night but my event happened mid afternoon.

I have a copperband and a manderin in my tank not sure if they will feast on any babies should they appear.
 
stress can cause it, but just age can also. not any time schedule for it to happen either, full moon or anything. they spawn when other clams around them spawn, or not. it may happen again tomorrow, or never.
btw, what happened to your skimmer? was it trying to remove all the protein?
 
To be honest there was not a lot of activity with the skimmer. When the event started I looked at my skimmer and it needed a cleaning so I did that first just so that it would be ready for task. But surprisingly there was not a lot of extra skimmate. I did notice the odor was a little different from normal. A little "fishier' smell but that was about it. I have a Bubble King skimmer, which I think has done a fantastic job for the last 4yrs on my tank. Works like a champ and my water is super crystal clear.
 
Back
Top