How to breed clams.... - Page 3

scapes · 02/22/2011, 09:54 AM

gosh, i've had a gigas for 5 years, and 4 other clams at the moment. i've probably owned 30+ other clams at one time or another. in all the years i've had clams, i've never had one spawn...never. good luck in this project!

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scapes

gosh, i've had a gigas for 5 years, and 4 other clams at the moment. i've probably owned 30+ other clams at one time or another. in all the years i've had clams, i've never had one spawn...never. good luck in this project!

Have you tried to breed them? Have they every tried on their own? Was it done only in your DT?

scapes · 02/22/2011, 10:12 AM

no, i've never tried to breed them. i have seahorses and they're time consuming enough. I stated they have NEVER spawned, so you ask have they tried...i'm assumming no they have no tried on their own as they have never spawned. you ask "was it done only in your DT?" what was done....

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scapes

no, i've never tried to breed them. i have seahorses and they're time consuming enough. I stated they have NEVER spawned, so you ask have they tried...i'm assumming no they have no tried on their own as they have never spawned. you ask "was it done only in your DT?" what was done....

i wasnt sure what you meant by never spawned. If they have tried and never worked out or if they plainly never tried. And i was asking if they have if it was done in your DT.

Seems the main issue is that with them spawning is that it cant be done in the DT because of preditors. Everything loves hatchlings, high in nutrients and such. So it makes sense that it wouldnt work in anything other than an enlcosed system till they are old enough. Which from everything i have read seems to be after a couple weeks to a month.

will46r · 02/22/2011, 11:06 AM

One thing to consider is that if someone is able to do it at home they're most likely unwilling to share their process because it would impinge on their revenue

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 11:37 AM

true, which could also be conspiracy for all the hate towards talking about it on here. esp from Modiken. Though i thought this was a forum to help others, not pursuade them from pinching your greed. lol

moliken · 02/22/2011, 04:37 PM

hey bsod, i never once put forth any hatred. i don't know you or care about you enough to say anything derogatory about you. all i am looking out for is your clams. more than you must be doing. now it's money? before it was science. try anything you want, but don't sacrifice any clams. now if i wanted to say something negative about you, i could easily say that you have no experience in how to keep a clam alive for any length of time, let alone breed them. no hatred, just truth, so don't get sensitive about criticism.

moliken · 02/22/2011, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluScrnOdeth

Common Moliken. You had so much to say the other day about how this cant be done. But now you have nothing to say about my last post which makes it an alternative to it being possible?

simple, i have nothing to add that hasn't been said by myself, minh, fish dave, or scapes. you pursue your ill-thought-out plan regardless of what is put plainly before your face. why comment?

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moliken

hey bsod, i never once put forth any hatred. i don't know you or care about you enough to say anything derogatory about you. all i am looking out for is your clams. more than you must be doing. now it's money? before it was science. try anything you want, but don't sacrifice any clams. now if i wanted to say something negative about you, i could easily say that you have no experience in how to keep a clam alive for any length of time, let alone breed them. no hatred, just truth, so don't get sensitive about criticism.

I wasnt saying hatred towards me, and it has nothing to do with money to me. The guy before me mentioned that it would impede on peoples revenue. I never once said that i was doing this for money and clearly stated that this forum should be to help people, not deny people to keep your profits. I think you need to learn how to read or something.

For me it is science and am willing to share anything that i find out. I will be posting as many pics as i can as well to share what i have done so that it can be built upon to improve.

I was talking to a friend of mine and we will be building out testing ground hopefully within 2 weeks. We are going to go over our plans and acquire mature clams. We will test out the clams after a month of having them in our tank to ensure that it is healthy and stress free.

If you have any advice on taking care of them, i'm all ears. I have read articles over the past 6mo before we picked up these little guys. If there are any key factors that typical beginners miss, and that i might have overlooked, please speak up. It doesnt seem difficult to keep them happy or to identify any troubles as long as you keep proper water conditions and light intensity. If any signs show, i have a few pages bookmarked for quick reference.

moliken · 02/22/2011, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluScrnOdeth

I wasnt saying hatred towards me, and it has nothing to do with money to me. The guy before me mentioned that it would impede on peoples revenue. I never once said that i was doing this for money and clearly stated that this forum should be to help people, not deny people to keep your profits. I think you need to learn how to read or something.

For me it is science and am willing to share anything that i find out. I will be posting as many pics as i can as well to share what i have done so that it can be built upon to improve.

I was talking to a friend of mine and we will be building out testing ground hopefully within 2 weeks. We are going to go over our plans and acquire mature clams. We will test out the clams after a month of having them in our tank to ensure that it is healthy and stress free.

If you have any advice on taking care of them, i'm all ears. I have read articles over the past 6mo before we picked up these little guys. If there are any key factors that typical beginners miss, and that i might have overlooked, please speak up. It doesnt seem difficult to keep them happy or to identify any troubles as long as you keep proper water conditions and light intensity. If any signs show, i have a few pages bookmarked for quick reference.

ok. you ready to shell out big $$ for larger clams?
what are your lights that you plan on using?
drip acclimation, burp clams.
moderate flow and not directly on the clam.
check for pyr snails and any other pests, before any purchase. list water params.

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moliken

ok. you ready to shell out big $$ for larger clams?
what are your lights that you plan on using?
drip acclimation, burp clams.
moderate flow and not directly on the clam.
check for pyr snails and any other pests, before any purchase. list water params.

Yes i am, i have the money to do so. I plan on using either LED like i built on my current tank or i might use some PC lights. Not sure yet, i havent looked into other lights yet aside from my LEDs since there is still plenty of time. I know how to drip acclimate so we can check that off the list. I have read about burping and done it on my small clams and it went rather well as described in one of the forums on here. I dont like to get LFS water in my tank so the only time it was out of water was wen i put it in my tank. I checked the ones i have for snails and anything else i could visibly see and looked rather clean and all the other clams in the area looked clean as well.
I am keeping moderate flow (the mantal isnt blowing around, not even causing it to flutter).

I did a water quality check just yesterday:
I have a Mg and PO4 test kit on the way as the 3 closest LFS's didnt have any. I guess they are more into just selling stuff than you actually taking care of them.

Alk: 13.1
Calc: 430
NO2: 0
NH3/NH4: 0
PH: 8.2
NO3: 0-5 (color looked really close to both)

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 09:34 PM

Also during this time till i can build this setup to rear clams, i will be buying a few strains of algae.
Tetraselmis: HUFA-~5% EpA-~6%
produces two antibiotic-like compounds thats a plus but is rather large in size (9-14um)

Nannochloropsis oculata: HUFA-16-43% EPA-High DHA-Low
easy to culture size: 2-4um

Isochrysis galbana: HUFA-2-4% EPA-3-4.2%
supposed to be rather easy size: 4-7um

Nanno and Iso will be used on the first feeding (though may not be needed but i want to ensure best chance of success) plus their size is rather close so they can get a variety IF they even eat the stuff. Plus the two sort of help balance where the other one lacks. Though Tetra would be a better substitute for Iso but i worry about its size.

Sometime this weekend I'll get a drawing put together of how i will do the plumbing and stuff for the hatchery resting place till they are a couple months old.

scapes · 02/22/2011, 09:45 PM

ok you two.........

BSOD, let me explain a tad where Moliken is coming from, and about this site a bit. There is another thread on here where a guy decided to do a build thread on a rimless 10g tank. ok, so i chime in and say that 10gs are not made to have their RIMS taken off and that he was doing this "experiment" as he liked to call it at his office. Ok, me being a business owner myself, i took great offense to this as it not only urked me he was doing an experiment with corals/fish with a tank that was NOT made for this and that he was doing this at a place of business that was NOT HIS OWN. If one of my employees did this "experiment" at my place of business and 10g of saltwater had gotten all over the floor and had killed all this reefstock i would be ticked. did he care? no, and so my life went on.. the OP made his case, and i said "well i'm obviously not going to change your mind". me and the OP of this thread had some heated words, yes, but they were not in hatred on either ends. I was merely expressing my concern not only for the livestock but for a place of business that was obviously not his.

so, what moliken is saying is that you are attempting a task that is very hard to accomplish at best. I honestly don't know, but from what everyone else has said, it is. But, there is always that "risk taker", just like in the build thread i mentioned above, and I guess you are the one in this thread about this certain issue.

You have made your case in the breeding of clams. it sounds like you have thought this out, have plans, and are in the works and are not changing your mind. Moliken is just expressing his doubts/questions/concerns as this seems like to him and to us an impossible task and he is an owner of quite a few clams and all he is doing is looking out for the well being of your clams or the clams you will be purchasing. Don't take it as "hatred".

If you do end up doing this, then i would suggest you getting out of this thread and starting your own. you can do your own build thread and all of us can ask questions/express concerns, etc. But speaking from my own experience with clams, truly after 6 years of being in this hobby, I can finally say i think i can successfully keep a clam. clams are so temperamental, so hard to keep, and i can't tell you how many threads i have read where people have said they've had X clam for this long and it just killed over dead one night, as has happened to me on many of nights. these facts are what moliken is merely trying to make.

whew! that made me tired and i'm ready for another drink

BluScrnOdeth · 02/22/2011, 10:00 PM

i get what you are saying. I dont want to harm or kill anything and I'm doing this at a place of MY BUSINESS, my home, thats where i work, so dont worry, if i mess anything up i can only be mad at me lol. He stresses concerns, i ask questions, and all i get is the same replies that dont answer any of my questions. I think of solutions, and get no reply back... All i want are answers. If you dont know, then say so. i'm not trying to be a *****, but this is something that i want to do and if there is nothing that is a definite cant do, other than its going to be very difficult, then i'm going to do all that i can to make it easy, safe, or whatever. doing a 10g rimless, the math can prove that it wouldnt work. But so far i havent seen any evidence that doing it at home will not work.

Once i get everything setup and ready to go, i will start a new thread with videos etc. But i would like to keep this open for preliminary reasons if thats ok.

scapes · 02/22/2011, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluScrnOdeth

Once i get everything setup and ready to go, i will start a new thread with videos etc. But i would like to keep this open for preliminary reasons if thats ok.

perfect, can't wait

good luck

moliken · 02/23/2011, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluScrnOdeth

Yes i am, i have the money to do so. I plan on using either LED WHAT LEDS?? like i built on my current tank or i might use some PC lights INSUFFICIENT PAR. Not sure yet, i havent looked into other lights yet aside from my LEDs since there is still plenty of time. I know how to drip acclimate so we can check that off the list. I have read about burping and done it on my small clams and it went rather well as described in one of the forums on here. I dont like to get LFS water in my tank so the only time it was out of water was wen i put it in my tank. I checked the ones i have for snails AT NIGHT?? and anything else i could visibly see and looked rather clean and all the other clams in the area looked clean as well.
I am keeping moderate flow (the mantal isnt blowing around, not even causing it to flutter).

I did a water quality check just yesterday:
I have a Mg and PO4 test kit on the way as the 3 closest LFS's didnt have any. I guess they are more into just selling stuff than you actually taking care of them.

Alk: 13.1
Calc: 430
NO2: 0
NH3/NH4: 0
PH: 8.2
NO3: 0-5 (color looked really close to both)

SG??
water changes??
salt brand??
test kit brand??
don't understand the 10 gallon tank you mention in the other post:
"doing a 10g rimless, the math can prove that it wouldnt work."

scapes · 02/23/2011, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moliken

don't understand the 10 gallon tank you mention in the other post:
"doing a 10g rimless, the math can prove that it wouldnt work."

moliken....come on now honey read the threads. that's something i wrote relating to a totally different thread and has nothing to do what he's working on

moliken · 02/23/2011, 06:48 PM

ooops. that's exactly why i didn't understand it.lol

BluScrnOdeth · 02/23/2011, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moliken

SG??
water changes??
salt brand??
test kit brand??
don't understand the 10 gallon tank you mention in the other post:
"doing a 10g rimless, the math can prove that it wouldnt work."

SG is 1.024
I use Instant Ocean salt
Water changes... Well i do them once every 6mo or so. I use supplements and have to replace 5g of water every couple days so it gets plenty of trace elements.
Test kit- Salifert for Alk and Calc and Aquarium Pharmaceuticals for everything else.
The supplements i use are: Kent Marine coral accel, coral-vite and Marine Snow. Anything i should add?

scapes · 02/23/2011, 08:16 PM

i've heard that coral accel & coral-vite are a waste of money. i used to use these two when i first started and heard it was just a waste of money. don't know anything about marine snow

BluScrnOdeth · 02/23/2011, 08:18 PM

i have only bought one bottle. i havent noticed any difference so i'll prob stop using it and do more water changes so that i can ensure they are getting enough trace elements. i dont know if my tap water has all the essential elements that the habitants need, thats why i figured i would give it a shot.

moliken · 02/23/2011, 09:06 PM

not rodi water? tap water?
IO IS NOT A GOOD SALT IMHO.
raise sg, but if youre not using a refractometer, get one and get it calibrated.
marine snow is not a supplement. it's a food for filter feeders.

BluScrnOdeth · 02/24/2011, 04:50 AM

No I don't use rodi, tap only. It strips it of everything. What good is that. Plus my tap water has a Ph of 8.1 so its good at helping maintain levels. To you why is IO not good salt? It doesn't throw my quality out of wack or anything.
I do plan on getting a refractometer. But I have more things to worry about. My hydrometer is pretty good. Its not accurate but at least its consistently inaccurate. And I don't want to raise my salinity. As water evaporates from my tank it gets raised a little and 1.024 is in the green zone. Why should I raise it?

moliken · 02/24/2011, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluScrnOdeth

No I don't use rodi, tap only. It strips it of everything. What good is that. Plus my tap water has a Ph of 8.1 so its good at helping maintain levels. To you why is IO not good salt? It doesn't throw my quality out of wack or anything.
I do plan on getting a refractometer. But I have more things to worry about. My hydrometer is pretty good. Its not accurate but at least its consistently inaccurate. And I don't want to raise my salinity. As water evaporates from my tank it gets raised a little and 1.024 is in the green zone. Why should I raise it?

who knows what your tap water contains--arsenic, chloramines, people meds, lead, etc?
ask or read around about IO.
what kinda hydrometer do you have? floating, swing arm? how old? if it's consistent it could still be off, potentially far off, from normal. i did say not to raise sg until you get a calibrated refracto. a better sg for clams is slightly above 1.025 up to 27, according to fatheree, pg 149.
simple: do things your way, or accept what others say and evaluate each. no hatred or accusations, but chances of what you'd consider "success" are greater with exactitude and precision, plus quality.

BluScrnOdeth · 02/24/2011, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moliken

who knows what your tap water contains--arsenic, chloramines, people meds, lead, etc?
ask or read around about IO.
what kinda hydrometer do you have? floating, swing arm? how old? if it's consistent it could still be off, potentially far off, from normal. i did say not to raise sg until you get a calibrated refracto. a better sg for clams is slightly above 1.025 up to 27, according to fatheree, pg 149.
simple: do things your way, or accept what others say and evaluate each. no hatred or accusations, but chances of what you'd consider "success" are greater with exactitude and precision, plus quality.

I cant recall what all is in my water but we get a quarterly statement from our water company that lists a bunch of stuff. What it doesnt list, i'm not sure either.

OK, i havent read that 1.025 was better, i'll work on that and pick a refractometer online, any suggestions? I dont remember the name of the hydrometer i have but it was one from Jacks, a swing arm.

02/22/2011, 04:37 PM	#57
moliken Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: smyrna Posts: 3,536	hey bsod, i never once put forth any hatred. i don't know you or care about you enough to say anything derogatory about you. all i am looking out for is your clams. more than you must be doing. now it's money? before it was science. try anything you want, but don't sacrifice any clams. now if i wanted to say something negative about you, i could easily say that you have no experience in how to keep a clam alive for any length of time, let alone breed them. no hatred, just truth, so don't get sensitive about criticism. __________________ 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

02/23/2011, 06:48 PM	#68
moliken Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: smyrna Posts: 3,536	ooops. that's exactly why i didn't understand it.lol __________________ 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

02/23/2011, 09:06 PM	#72
moliken Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: smyrna Posts: 3,536	not rodi water? tap water? IO IS NOT A GOOD SALT IMHO. raise sg, but if youre not using a refractometer, get one and get it calibrated. marine snow is not a supplement. it's a food for filter feeders. __________________ 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

02/24/2011, 04:50 AM	#73
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	No I don't use rodi, tap only. It strips it of everything. What good is that. Plus my tap water has a Ph of 8.1 so its good at helping maintain levels. To you why is IO not good salt? It doesn't throw my quality out of wack or anything. I do plan on getting a refractometer. But I have more things to worry about. My hydrometer is pretty good. Its not accurate but at least its consistently inaccurate. And I don't want to raise my salinity. As water evaporates from my tank it gets raised a little and 1.024 is in the green zone. Why should I raise it? Last edited by BluScrnOdeth; 02/24/2011 at 05:22 AM.

02/22/2011, 09:54 AM	#51
scapes Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Millbrook, AL Posts: 2,520	gosh, i've had a gigas for 5 years, and 4 other clams at the moment. i've probably owned 30+ other clams at one time or another. in all the years i've had clams, i've never had one spawn...never. good luck in this project!

02/22/2011, 10:12 AM	#53
scapes Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Millbrook, AL Posts: 2,520	no, i've never tried to breed them. i have seahorses and they're time consuming enough. I stated they have NEVER spawned, so you ask have they tried...i'm assumming no they have no tried on their own as they have never spawned. you ask "was it done only in your DT?" what was done....

02/22/2011, 11:06 AM	#55
will46r Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Alabama Posts: 199	One thing to consider is that if someone is able to do it at home they're most likely unwilling to share their process because it would impinge on their revenue

02/22/2011, 11:37 AM	#56
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	true, which could also be conspiracy for all the hate towards talking about it on here. esp from Modiken. Though i thought this was a forum to help others, not pursuade them from pinching your greed. lol

02/22/2011, 09:34 PM	#62
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	Also during this time till i can build this setup to rear clams, i will be buying a few strains of algae. Tetraselmis: HUFA-~5% EpA-~6% produces two antibiotic-like compounds thats a plus but is rather large in size (9-14um) Nannochloropsis oculata: HUFA-16-43% EPA-High DHA-Low easy to culture size: 2-4um Isochrysis galbana: HUFA-2-4% EPA-3-4.2% supposed to be rather easy size: 4-7um Nanno and Iso will be used on the first feeding (though may not be needed but i want to ensure best chance of success) plus their size is rather close so they can get a variety IF they even eat the stuff. Plus the two sort of help balance where the other one lacks. Though Tetra would be a better substitute for Iso but i worry about its size. Sometime this weekend I'll get a drawing put together of how i will do the plumbing and stuff for the hatchery resting place till they are a couple months old.

02/22/2011, 09:45 PM	#63
scapes Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Millbrook, AL Posts: 2,520	ok you two......... BSOD, let me explain a tad where Moliken is coming from, and about this site a bit. There is another thread on here where a guy decided to do a build thread on a rimless 10g tank. ok, so i chime in and say that 10gs are not made to have their RIMS taken off and that he was doing this "experiment" as he liked to call it at his office. Ok, me being a business owner myself, i took great offense to this as it not only urked me he was doing an experiment with corals/fish with a tank that was NOT made for this and that he was doing this at a place of business that was NOT HIS OWN. If one of my employees did this "experiment" at my place of business and 10g of saltwater had gotten all over the floor and had killed all this reefstock i would be ticked. did he care? no, and so my life went on.. the OP made his case, and i said "well i'm obviously not going to change your mind". me and the OP of this thread had some heated words, yes, but they were not in hatred on either ends. I was merely expressing my concern not only for the livestock but for a place of business that was obviously not his. so, what moliken is saying is that you are attempting a task that is very hard to accomplish at best. I honestly don't know, but from what everyone else has said, it is. But, there is always that "risk taker", just like in the build thread i mentioned above, and I guess you are the one in this thread about this certain issue. You have made your case in the breeding of clams. it sounds like you have thought this out, have plans, and are in the works and are not changing your mind. Moliken is just expressing his doubts/questions/concerns as this seems like to him and to us an impossible task and he is an owner of quite a few clams and all he is doing is looking out for the well being of your clams or the clams you will be purchasing. Don't take it as "hatred". If you do end up doing this, then i would suggest you getting out of this thread and starting your own. you can do your own build thread and all of us can ask questions/express concerns, etc. But speaking from my own experience with clams, truly after 6 years of being in this hobby, I can finally say i think i can successfully keep a clam. clams are so temperamental, so hard to keep, and i can't tell you how many threads i have read where people have said they've had X clam for this long and it just killed over dead one night, as has happened to me on many of nights. these facts are what moliken is merely trying to make. whew! that made me tired and i'm ready for another drink

02/22/2011, 10:00 PM	#64
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	i get what you are saying. I dont want to harm or kill anything and I'm doing this at a place of MY BUSINESS, my home, thats where i work, so dont worry, if i mess anything up i can only be mad at me lol. He stresses concerns, i ask questions, and all i get is the same replies that dont answer any of my questions. I think of solutions, and get no reply back... All i want are answers. If you dont know, then say so. i'm not trying to be a *****, but this is something that i want to do and if there is nothing that is a definite cant do, other than its going to be very difficult, then i'm going to do all that i can to make it easy, safe, or whatever. doing a 10g rimless, the math can prove that it wouldnt work. But so far i havent seen any evidence that doing it at home will not work. Once i get everything setup and ready to go, i will start a new thread with videos etc. But i would like to keep this open for preliminary reasons if thats ok.

02/23/2011, 08:16 PM	#70
scapes Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Millbrook, AL Posts: 2,520	i've heard that coral accel & coral-vite are a waste of money. i used to use these two when i first started and heard it was just a waste of money. don't know anything about marine snow

02/23/2011, 08:18 PM	#71
BluScrnOdeth Darin Schmidt Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ohio Posts: 537	i have only bought one bottle. i havent noticed any difference so i'll prob stop using it and do more water changes so that i can ensure they are getting enough trace elements. i dont know if my tap water has all the essential elements that the habitants need, thats why i figured i would give it a shot.