Thunderstruck34
Member
ahh yes the force is strong with you. thats a good point that you bring up about the larger scale clam farmers, I wonder how they do keep that stuff under control.
Raising Clams After Spawning
- Thread starter Romulox234
- Start date
They are rice sized and not all are parasitic to clams. They are hard to distinguish but some are rissoid snails.
If you want a diagnosis - pm me - I can forward you a contact who might help.
The best way to avoid them is prevention. When receiving new clams - the snails may not be present but their eggs might be. Just take an old tooth brush and make sure you give it a good scrubbing to ensure you dislodge any egg sacs or hitcher snails.
Going back to OP - get Fatheree's book. There's a discussion on clam farming. Let's just say that when fertilized and the eggs hatched - they are susceptible to bacterial infection. So they use streptomycin and neomycin antibiotics. During this larval stage they may also choose to feed them phyto. You will also need a source of zooxallenthae - that will colonize the mantel when the clams are ready. That means sacrificing a clam and blenderizing the mantel.
Read it in the book. It's interesting stuff.
Last edited:
OrionN
Moved on
Back to the first question. When clams spawn in aquarium, because of the concentration of the sperms, eggs get polyspermia (more than one sperm fertilize an egg. and won't develop. Most higher animals have mechanism to prevent this from happen to ensure that only one sperm per egg, but clams do not.
Day With 2 Suns
New member
I had the opportunity to visit a clam farm in Majuro Marshall Islands several years ago and and luck would have it they were in the process of breeding.
The setup consisted of 16 concrete raceways, each about 12 feet by 30 feet x 1.5 foot deep. Each raceway had clams that were in different stages of development, from the smallest clam amout less than 1/4 ijnch to the larger ones that were being prepared for shipout in the 2-3 inch range.
Fellow members are correct. The breeding tanks had 6 large clams, about the size of a basketball. They took one clam out and put him in the direct sun for and hour or so. Then they forced his shell open just enough to get along needle and inserted the secret drug which they would not tell me but no doubt something that will make the clam spawn right away when put back into the water. The group was all close together. They did have a pump running for the raceway that was a slow current. Perhaps 15 minutes latter it happennded. First puffs of white smoke (sperm) many time over the puffs of the eggs. This continued for over and hour and soon the raceway was a diluted milky white.
They removed the breeder clams and seperated them into the other raceways and kept the pump running. There was no filter attached at this time. They told me that it will stay in this stage for about 3-4 days until the water clears up and then they look at the water under a microscope to see at what state the clams are in.
At the right moment is when they start to add the micro plankton that they had growing in a seperate raceway. Its very similar to raising clown fish somewhat.
It takes out 2-3 weeks before you can actually see and sort of shell being formed. The clams will stay in that raceway until they are ready to sell at the 2-3 inch size. The process begins all over again when they a have a empty raceway.
I don't know how accurate this is but this is what I saw and what I was told.
The setup consisted of 16 concrete raceways, each about 12 feet by 30 feet x 1.5 foot deep. Each raceway had clams that were in different stages of development, from the smallest clam amout less than 1/4 ijnch to the larger ones that were being prepared for shipout in the 2-3 inch range.
Fellow members are correct. The breeding tanks had 6 large clams, about the size of a basketball. They took one clam out and put him in the direct sun for and hour or so. Then they forced his shell open just enough to get along needle and inserted the secret drug which they would not tell me but no doubt something that will make the clam spawn right away when put back into the water. The group was all close together. They did have a pump running for the raceway that was a slow current. Perhaps 15 minutes latter it happennded. First puffs of white smoke (sperm) many time over the puffs of the eggs. This continued for over and hour and soon the raceway was a diluted milky white.
They removed the breeder clams and seperated them into the other raceways and kept the pump running. There was no filter attached at this time. They told me that it will stay in this stage for about 3-4 days until the water clears up and then they look at the water under a microscope to see at what state the clams are in.
At the right moment is when they start to add the micro plankton that they had growing in a seperate raceway. Its very similar to raising clown fish somewhat.
It takes out 2-3 weeks before you can actually see and sort of shell being formed. The clams will stay in that raceway until they are ready to sell at the 2-3 inch size. The process begins all over again when they a have a empty raceway.
I don't know how accurate this is but this is what I saw and what I was told.
MM WI
New member
Nice, some first hand observations. Thanks.
I wonder if the injection is just another stressor or actually some biologically active compound, steroid or other. That sounds closer to what I remember reading years back when this got started.
Must have been awesome looking at a runway full of brightly coloured clams in the sunlight.
- mark
I wonder if the injection is just another stressor or actually some biologically active compound, steroid or other. That sounds closer to what I remember reading years back when this got started.
Must have been awesome looking at a runway full of brightly coloured clams in the sunlight.
- mark
Romulox234
New member
Thanks that was really great info, it wouldve been nice to be able to sit at home and raise my very own baby clams oh well a man can dream cant he
Day With 2 Suns
New member
I do believe the chemical is called SEROTONIN which trigger the release of the sperm. The only problem, I had was trying to pick out which clams I wanted out of 100o's in the raceway!! I brought back 10 clams and they are happily living in my reef tank.
On a side note a few years ago the owners and the helper of the clam farm were fired. They skipped out of Majuro and were caught in Australia and are now in jail. They were over charging the buyers with higher freight rates and pocketing the money. They don't know how long this was going on. Now the new owner is ORCA in Florida, or they are in partnership with the Marshall Island Fisheries dept. I don't know the whole story, but happened to run into a friend I met in Majuro on a plane when I went to Micronesia.
On a side note a few years ago the owners and the helper of the clam farm were fired. They skipped out of Majuro and were caught in Australia and are now in jail. They were over charging the buyers with higher freight rates and pocketing the money. They don't know how long this was going on. Now the new owner is ORCA in Florida, or they are in partnership with the Marshall Island Fisheries dept. I don't know the whole story, but happened to run into a friend I met in Majuro on a plane when I went to Micronesia.
Romulox234
New member
How much did you get those 10 clams for?
Day With 2 Suns
New member
The clam farm took care of all the permits. Each clam cost 12.50 US. I was able to check the box in with my luggage so there was no shipping charges. Wish it was this easy now flying!!!
Romulox234
New member
wow 10 clams for $125 and u got to hand pick the most colorful ones out of them all
ackerman
Member
Heres some good info on clam spawning
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1675727&perpage=25&pagenumber=2
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1675727&perpage=25&pagenumber=2
