How to breed clams....

lebowski · 08/26/2003, 04:00 PM

I have two maxima's right now, and I was wondering how to get them to breed... IF they ever let out their stuff.... How do I get them to have babies??? Are there female and male clams???

I want to breed some teardrops... If I could, I'd definetly sell these teardrops for like 80 each...

..

holeinone1972 · 08/26/2003, 04:31 PM

Great thought, but it is not going to happen in your tank, or home setup.

You would need access to open water, and tons of money to get started. So your $80 figure would be more like $800.

There is someone here who has got them to spawn through injecting them, but has not had any success at raisng them.

This practice is best left to commercial farmers, in the tropics.

Believe me, I wish I could have successfully bred some of the clams I have seen.

Yes there are male and female clams.

By the way, if you can breed them, you can quit high school.

LOL

RonN · 08/26/2003, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Yes there are male and female clams.

Clams are hermaphrodities, it is male and female in one. They are both genders.

Ron

SeanT · 08/26/2003, 05:39 PM

I remember reading in a thread here a while back that you would have to kill several dozen (if not hundreds) of clams to get the algae from them for the spawn of new clams.

Can't quite remember how it went.

The jist was: Not a chance at home.

cal3v · 08/26/2003, 06:42 PM

It would be very involved and much easier in large systems with large clams and as SeanT was kinda describing, they need to get zooxanthellae to start off from other clams so pieces of mantles are cut and blendered etc and then often centrifuged to get the zooxanthellae separate and use that to let the small ones gain their symbiotic algae.

lebowski · 08/26/2003, 08:22 PM

interesting.....

So......

How do they do it in the oceans?

firechild · 08/26/2003, 10:42 PM

Firstly, gender: Clams first develop as males (2-3 years for maximas) then secondly as females (7-9 years) but still possessing male gonads meaning as mature "females" they can produce eggs and sperm but spawn separately to avoid self fertilisation.

Secondly, fertilisation: It is difficult to get the right concentrations of sperm and eggs, clams are highly suscptable to polyspermy (fertilisation by two or more sperm) which renders them useless.

Thirdly, zooxanthellae innoculation: As mentioned, this usually involves taking mantle tissue and blending it before centrifuging the zoox which are then used to seed the juvenile clams. There are other methods but this is the easiest and most commonly practised.
In the wild, clams are constantly releasing zooxanthellae as their populations grow and conditions change. In a controlled environment such as an aquarium, conditions do not change often and so fewer zoox are released. The amount that would be free living in your tank would be too little to effectively innoculate a batch of juvenile clams.

AgentSPS · 08/27/2003, 10:16 AM

your first step would be to get a bigger tank. A spawning event in a 29 gal would almost certainly create a cespool in a matter of hours.

mogurnda · 08/27/2003, 10:51 AM

If you really want to do it, here's an aquaculture manual.

Clam Manual

Eddie James · 02/16/2011, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mogurnda

If you really want to do it, here's an aquaculture manual.

Clam Manual

You just made my day 8 years later.

moliken · 02/16/2011, 08:05 PM

i saw vids of it being done in the pacific raising areas, like marshall islands, but it's involved, needs big clams, many water changes, only doable next to an ocean, few survivors, etc. will search for the link

mogurnda · 02/17/2011, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddie James

You just made my day 8 years later.

Amazing that link still works.

moliken · 02/17/2011, 04:20 PM

here are a few that'll show how difficult it really is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSbrwwJCK6s
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hu8d...layer_embedded
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lki3...layer_embedded

will46r · 02/17/2011, 05:20 PM

Wow... internet zombies... but very cool thread!

GreshamH · 02/17/2011, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by will46r

Wow... internet zombies... but very cool thread!

Necroposters

will46r · 02/17/2011, 09:30 PM

After wading through 160+ pages of papers it appears breeding clams is very easy if you have access to cheap labor, several clams (a few have to be sacrificed every fertilization), blender, syringes, microscope, assorted lab stuff and a business model that allows you to wait 16-18 months for a product

Heck, don't we all have this laying around

I could swipe all but the clams and business model from work.

scapes · 02/18/2011, 12:40 AM

plz try this will...i'd like to see a local do this

better yet, attempt this in his 2.5 gallon aquarium

will46r · 02/18/2011, 06:48 AM

Heyyyy I do have other tanks, just not set up.

BluScrnOdeth · 02/19/2011, 03:03 AM

I think some are making this sound more complicated than it really is. Just because its done on a commercial ial farm doesn't mean it can't be done small scale(55+gal tank). Alot of you are making assumptions that clearly 99% of us have no clue about. Do you need all that equipment to get some clams growing.... no, does nature.... There are other ways to get them to breed without killing them. If I can find the PDF ill post it but what they did was sat them out in the sun to stress them out and then put them back in the water. Almost always it caused them to reproduce.

What I think should be done is more analyzing, less BS. Like for instance, how old do they have to be to reproduce, how can we get a concentration of zoo in there so we don't have to blend a clam, things like that. We mimic the sun all the time in our tanks to grow coral and raise clams in our tanks so that shouldn't be an issue.

I just bought 2 clams today and I'm def going to give it a shot as long as it doesn't involve blending my clams.

Housing mivcosoes and such, that's for when you are getting really serious and pushing it beyond a hobby. Sure we would all like to make some money off our tanks but that's not why we started the hobby. Go into business if you want to go so in-depth as to use a microscope. Let nature take its course in your home system and sell whatever does get created. You get what I'm saying. Its late, sorry if I don't get my point across.

moliken · 02/19/2011, 06:25 AM

the point you are neglecting is that yes, some clams spawn in home tanks, but their release of sperm/eggs is massive and can easily pollute the tank. you should hope the 2 you bought don't do it, not the other way around.

BluScrnOdeth · 02/19/2011, 09:21 AM

O have a 300g tank so I think I will be ok. I hope. I seen the other day how much sperm my urchin can put out. Sure did cloud the tank up. But my ATS will clean it.

OrionN · 02/19/2011, 10:37 AM

All you need to do is to stress a mature clam and they will spawn. Plenty of us have clams spawn in our aquarium. Calms are hermaphrodites, they will produce both sperms and eggs. The problem with clams reproduction in aquarium is that clams have no mechanism to prevent polyspermia (more than one sperm fertilize an egg). If this happen whit it will do in aquarium. then it will not develop.
There is one thread on RC where a reefer got one Derasa from spawn event several years ago. This in the only clam reproduction in aquarium that I ever read about.

OrionN · 02/19/2011, 10:05 PM

Here is a thread about one T. derassa that was the reproduction of a spawn of in a reefer's tank.
IMO, this really did happen, and not a hoax. I cam to this conclusion because:
1. the baby clam is really too small to be import to England (where this happened)
2. I know the OP and judge him to be trust worthy
It really too bad the way the thread turn out and it was closed. IMO, it is an interesting thread and deserved better than be close.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...m+reproduction

BluScrnOdeth · 02/20/2011, 12:43 AM

I agree, they were pretty harsh on him. They acted as if he should have been documenting something for a science exp. when it was a freak accident that it happened. I think I'll try to breed mine once i find out how old they are and get an idea on how i want to do it. I think in the home aquarium situation, you dont have to do it like the clam farms, cycling water, etc, etc.

But i think that if you can stress the clam to begin the process, you can isolate them to get the sperm, then do the same to get the eggs, then (if you dont have a microscope) estimate how many eggs there are (i think they are slightly visible if i remember correctly what i read) and then put a couple drops of sperm in there. Even if all the eggs dont get fertilized, hopefully it will decrease the amount of polyspermia that will happen.

I might get a microscope though since they can be rather cheap and try to make better estimates that way on how much sperm and egg content there is.

But first thing is first, age of clams. Because if i remember correctly (going off of several months ago of reading) They have to be 2 to develop sperm and 4 to develop eggs. I'll have to read that manual and see what it says tomorrow while im at work.

BluScrnOdeth · 02/20/2011, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinone1972

Great thought, but it is not going to happen in your tank, or home setup.

You would need access to open water, and tons of money to get started. So your $80 figure would be more like $800.

There is someone here who has got them to spawn through injecting them, but has not had any success at raisng them.

This practice is best left to commercial farmers, in the tropics.

Believe me, I wish I could have successfully bred some of the clams I have seen.

Yes there are male and female clams.

By the way, if you can breed them, you can quit high school.

LOL

replies like this are what baffle me.

"You would need access to open water, and tons of money to get started"

Thats like saying you need to do the same to even have fish in an aquarium. Who would have thought that we could stick them in a 24g aquarium.

"Yes there are male and female clams."

Clearly must not know anything about clams.

Not trying to start an argument, but lets think outside of the box. Just because someone does something a certain way doesnt mean thats the only way it works. Lets be a little more optimistic.

08/26/2003, 04:00 PM	#1
lebowski Notorious Reeferus Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 3,048 Blog Entries: 1	How to breed clams.... I have two maxima's right now, and I was wondering how to get them to breed... IF they ever let out their stuff.... How do I get them to have babies??? Are there female and male clams??? I want to breed some teardrops... If I could, I'd definetly sell these teardrops for like 80 each... .. __________________ "Only the pure in heart and soul can make a good soup!" - Ludwig Van Beethoven

08/26/2003, 04:31 PM	#2
holeinone1972 Team RC Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 2,334	Great thought, but it is not going to happen in your tank, or home setup. You would need access to open water, and tons of money to get started. So your $80 figure would be more like $800. There is someone here who has got them to spawn through injecting them, but has not had any success at raisng them. This practice is best left to commercial farmers, in the tropics. Believe me, I wish I could have successfully bred some of the clams I have seen. Yes there are male and female clams. By the way, if you can breed them, you can quit high school. LOL __________________ It's only money !!!! Current Tank Info: Trying to decide on 1st tank since mass selloff.

08/26/2003, 05:39 PM	#4
SeanT Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Wilmington, North Carolina Posts: 13,860	I remember reading in a thread here a while back that you would have to kill several dozen (if not hundreds) of clams to get the algae from them for the spawn of new clams. Can't quite remember how it went. The jist was: Not a chance at home. __________________ My tank was cool. Current Tank Info: Barebottom (the tank not me...at least not at the moment).

08/26/2003, 08:22 PM	#6
lebowski Notorious Reeferus Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 3,048 Blog Entries: 1	interesting..... So...... How do they do it in the oceans? __________________ "Only the pure in heart and soul can make a good soup!" - Ludwig Van Beethoven

08/27/2003, 10:51 AM	#9
mogurnda not a bot Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: DC Posts: 737	If you really want to do it, here's an aquaculture manual. Clam Manual __________________ Dave ------ I don't want the world, I just want your half. Current Tank Info: 90 gallon SPS, softy & anemone; multiple tanks for the solar sea slugs.

08/26/2003, 06:42 PM	#5
cal3v Premium Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Julian, CA Posts: 1,857	It would be very involved and much easier in large systems with large clams and as SeanT was kinda describing, they need to get zooxanthellae to start off from other clams so pieces of mantles are cut and blendered etc and then often centrifuged to get the zooxanthellae separate and use that to let the small ones gain their symbiotic algae.

08/26/2003, 10:42 PM	#7
firechild Premium Member Join Date: May 2001 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 1,282	Firstly, gender: Clams first develop as males (2-3 years for maximas) then secondly as females (7-9 years) but still possessing male gonads meaning as mature "females" they can produce eggs and sperm but spawn separately to avoid self fertilisation. Secondly, fertilisation: It is difficult to get the right concentrations of sperm and eggs, clams are highly suscptable to polyspermy (fertilisation by two or more sperm) which renders them useless. Thirdly, zooxanthellae innoculation: As mentioned, this usually involves taking mantle tissue and blending it before centrifuging the zoox which are then used to seed the juvenile clams. There are other methods but this is the easiest and most commonly practised. In the wild, clams are constantly releasing zooxanthellae as their populations grow and conditions change. In a controlled environment such as an aquarium, conditions do not change often and so fewer zoox are released. The amount that would be free living in your tank would be too little to effectively innoculate a batch of juvenile clams.

08/27/2003, 10:16 AM	#8
AgentSPS Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Bay Area CA Posts: 1,940	your first step would be to get a bigger tank. A spawning event in a 29 gal would almost certainly create a cespool in a matter of hours.

02/16/2011, 08:05 PM	#11
moliken Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: smyrna Posts: 3,536	i saw vids of it being done in the pacific raising areas, like marshall islands, but it's involved, needs big clams, many water changes, only doable next to an ocean, few survivors, etc. will search for the link __________________ not obsessse--scuse me gotta check on the tank Current Tank Info: 75 and 65gals plumbed together, clams 12 fish. lps corals/ aquaillumination leds on the 75 and lovin them. t5's

02/17/2011, 04:20 PM	#13
moliken Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: smyrna Posts: 3,536	here are a few that'll show how difficult it really is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSbrwwJCK6s and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hu8d...layer_embedded and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lki3...layer_embedded __________________ not obsessse--scuse me gotta check on the tank Current Tank Info: 75 and 65gals plumbed together, clams 12 fish. lps corals/ aquaillumination leds on the 75 and lovin them. t5's

02/17/2011, 05:20 PM	#14
will46r Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Alabama Posts: 199	Wow... internet zombies... but very cool thread!

02/17/2011, 09:30 PM	#16
will46r Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Alabama Posts: 199	After wading through 160+ pages of papers it appears breeding clams is very easy if you have access to cheap labor, several clams (a few have to be sacrificed every fertilization), blender, syringes, microscope, assorted lab stuff and a business model that allows you to wait 16-18 months for a product Heck, don't we all have this laying around I could swipe all but the clams and business model from work.

02/18/2011, 12:40 AM	#17
scapes Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Millbrook, AL Posts: 2,520	plz try this will...i'd like to see a local do this better yet, attempt this in his 2.5 gallon aquarium

02/18/2011, 06:48 AM	#18
will46r Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Alabama Posts: 199	Heyyyy I do have other tanks, just not set up.

02/19/2011, 03:03 AM	#19
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	I think some are making this sound more complicated than it really is. Just because its done on a commercial ial farm doesn't mean it can't be done small scale(55+gal tank). Alot of you are making assumptions that clearly 99% of us have no clue about. Do you need all that equipment to get some clams growing.... no, does nature.... There are other ways to get them to breed without killing them. If I can find the PDF ill post it but what they did was sat them out in the sun to stress them out and then put them back in the water. Almost always it caused them to reproduce. What I think should be done is more analyzing, less BS. Like for instance, how old do they have to be to reproduce, how can we get a concentration of zoo in there so we don't have to blend a clam, things like that. We mimic the sun all the time in our tanks to grow coral and raise clams in our tanks so that shouldn't be an issue. I just bought 2 clams today and I'm def going to give it a shot as long as it doesn't involve blending my clams. Housing mivcosoes and such, that's for when you are getting really serious and pushing it beyond a hobby. Sure we would all like to make some money off our tanks but that's not why we started the hobby. Go into business if you want to go so in-depth as to use a microscope. Let nature take its course in your home system and sell whatever does get created. You get what I'm saying. Its late, sorry if I don't get my point across.

02/19/2011, 06:25 AM	#20
moliken Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: smyrna Posts: 3,536	the point you are neglecting is that yes, some clams spawn in home tanks, but their release of sperm/eggs is massive and can easily pollute the tank. you should hope the 2 you bought don't do it, not the other way around. __________________ not obsessse--scuse me gotta check on the tank Current Tank Info: 75 and 65gals plumbed together, clams 12 fish. lps corals/ aquaillumination leds on the 75 and lovin them. t5's

02/19/2011, 09:21 AM	#21
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	O have a 300g tank so I think I will be ok. I hope. I seen the other day how much sperm my urchin can put out. Sure did cloud the tank up. But my ATS will clean it.

02/19/2011, 10:37 AM	#22
OrionN Moved on Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Coastal Texas Posts: 16,000	All you need to do is to stress a mature clam and they will spawn. Plenty of us have clams spawn in our aquarium. Calms are hermaphrodites, they will produce both sperms and eggs. The problem with clams reproduction in aquarium is that clams have no mechanism to prevent polyspermia (more than one sperm fertilize an egg). If this happen whit it will do in aquarium. then it will not develop. There is one thread on RC where a reefer got one Derasa from spawn event several years ago. This in the only clam reproduction in aquarium that I ever read about. __________________ Minh My homepage is my album here at Reef Central Current Tank Info: Reboot 320 anemones reef. Angels: Yellow Chest Regal(2), Flame (2). Copperband But. Tangs: Yellow, Purple. Wrasse: about 20 wrasses various species. Anemones: Giantea X4 (Breen, Blue, Purple and Multicolors), Haddoni X1 Red, Magnifica X1 Purpletip

02/19/2011, 10:05 PM	#23
OrionN Moved on Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Coastal Texas Posts: 16,000	Here is a thread about one T. derassa that was the reproduction of a spawn of in a reefer's tank. IMO, this really did happen, and not a hoax. I cam to this conclusion because: 1. the baby clam is really too small to be import to England (where this happened) 2. I know the OP and judge him to be trust worthy It really too bad the way the thread turn out and it was closed. IMO, it is an interesting thread and deserved better than be close. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...m+reproduction __________________ Minh My homepage is my album here at Reef Central Current Tank Info: Reboot 320 anemones reef. Angels: Yellow Chest Regal(2), Flame (2). Copperband But. Tangs: Yellow, Purple. Wrasse: about 20 wrasses various species. Anemones: Giantea X4 (Breen, Blue, Purple and Multicolors), Haddoni X1 Red, Magnifica X1 Purpletip

02/20/2011, 12:43 AM	#24
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	I agree, they were pretty harsh on him. They acted as if he should have been documenting something for a science exp. when it was a freak accident that it happened. I think I'll try to breed mine once i find out how old they are and get an idea on how i want to do it. I think in the home aquarium situation, you dont have to do it like the clam farms, cycling water, etc, etc. But i think that if you can stress the clam to begin the process, you can isolate them to get the sperm, then do the same to get the eggs, then (if you dont have a microscope) estimate how many eggs there are (i think they are slightly visible if i remember correctly what i read) and then put a couple drops of sperm in there. Even if all the eggs dont get fertilized, hopefully it will decrease the amount of polyspermia that will happen. I might get a microscope though since they can be rather cheap and try to make better estimates that way on how much sperm and egg content there is. But first thing is first, age of clams. Because if i remember correctly (going off of several months ago of reading) They have to be 2 to develop sperm and 4 to develop eggs. I'll have to read that manual and see what it says tomorrow while im at work.