Ive been starring at my clams today and I was wondering how do you breed them? Has anyone been successful, or is it even possible, if so how? I got 4 of them now and I love those things, it would be awesome to have more. Im planning on starting a 20 gal "species only" clam tank.
It's very difficult to do. You esentially have to heat/cold shock the clams for them to release gametes (this has to be done the day of full moon). You may have to inject them w/ seratonin. Then you have to manage the clam larvae for several years until they are a reasonable size. "Clams are not born incoulated w/ zooxanthellae but must gather it. To do this, one must take a clam w/ desirable traits and characteristics of mantle color and sacrifice it. The clam must be pureed (in a blender) to provide viable zooxanthellae for the settled larval clams."
Calfo's Book of Coral Propogation pg 324
They do it in large scale aquaculture but ya in a home aquarium forget it!
You will have them spawn and release gametes occasionally. It's a big mess and I try to do everything I can to prevent them from doing it (no cycle on the moonlights, etc)
Jaguar,
Not the shells, the zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that lives in the flesh of giant clams (And corals, and.....) and gives it energy, and color... (And the reason they require intense lighting)
:shock: Oh I think you just used too big a word for me. Something inside the clam that because there babies they aren't born with and with our closed environments we don't have enough of in a tank.
I don't really know much about clams. I guess I'll put that on the 'to learn about' list. They're really pretty, but I can't keep them with my horses so I've sort of not educated myself about them yet.
Zooxanthellae is the symbiotic algae living inside of corals, anemone's, clams, etc that gives it it's photosynthetic ability AND most of it's cool colors...
I.E. zooxanthellae isn't just related to clams, it's very important to all the light-loving animals we keep...
That means you don't have to sacrafice a clam per-se. You can sacrafice anything with zooxanthellae in it for the clam larva to use to start there own?
I'm pretty certain that the zooanthellae required by the larval clams must come from another clam. I'm not speaking from personal experience, but from Anthony Calfo's Book of Coral Propagation. It's a good read!
