High Tide Aquatics

Clam spawning.....

Kmooresf

Kmooresf

Supporting Member
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Had a long tank maintenance day. Water change, cleaned sand, frag tank, refugium, etc, etc.

Sat down on the couch just after finishing and the clam caught my eye. Jumped up to find it was spawning! VERY COOL! Took some video and threw together several shots of this. Went on for over 20 min...............I suppose I should have given it some privacy. :davie:

[YouTube]L9nHo-Mv0Kc[/YouTube]
 
Well, I did a little research. Seems the spawning might not be a great thing after all. This is a fascinating article about how clams spawn. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/8/inverts

I would like to think it spawned because I put some new moon lights in last month, however it makes me nervous knowing the water change could have triggered it. I am using the same salt, pre-heated and pre-mixed to the same salinity. The Alk is always a little low for my tank (about 7.5 to the tanks 9.2) so I add some brightwell buffer with the change. Today the tank was at 164 (9.1 dkh) before the change, and 171 (9.5dkh) after. You think that is enough? It pushed the PH from 8.4 to 8.47 as well. Otherwise I just can't see a possible trigger. Mag was 1250.......added 1/4 cup of brightwell mag this evening, but this was after the spawn.

Anyway, it's still pretty cool, but I will keep an eye on things and make sure I haven't missed something. Corals were very happy tonight.......enjoying the meal. ;)
 
I figured it was a good thing, but that article makes it sound like its going to cause all kinds of problem. I hope everything is ok in the tank! Keep us posted!
 
Very cool Kris. I think you might be interested in attending the meeting at RTC later this year. Crabby will have one of his students talk about clam spawning. We're looking into participating in a clam spawning study after.
 
gimmito said:
Very cool Kris. I think you might be interested in attending the meeting at RTC later this year. Crabby will have one of his students talk about clam spawning. We're looking into participating in a clam spawning study after.
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Sounds very cool Jim, I will try to make it.
 
Kmooresf said:
Well, I did a little research. Seems the spawning might not be a great thing after all. This is a fascinating article about how clams spawn. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/8/inverts

I would like to think it spawned because I put some new moon lights in last month, however it makes me nervous knowing the water change could have triggered it. I am using the same salt, pre-heated and pre-mixed to the same salinity. The Alk is always a little low for my tank (about 7.5 to the tanks 9.2) so I add some brightwell buffer with the change. Today the tank was at 164 (9.1 dkh) before the change, and 171 (9.5dkh) after. You think that is enough? It pushed the PH from 8.4 to 8.47 as well. Otherwise I just can't see a possible trigger. Mag was 1250.......added 1/4 cup of brightwell mag this evening, but this was after the spawn.

Anyway, it's still pretty cool, but I will keep an eye on things and make sure I haven't missed something. Corals were very happy tonight.......enjoying the meal. ;)
Click to expand...

There is no scientific evidence that adding "night lights" does anything to induce spawning in both corals and clams, and not due to the lack of trying. You'll have far better luck doing water changes to induce spawning.
 
BAYMAC said:
Kmooresf said:
Well, I did a little research. Seems the spawning might not be a great thing after all. This is a fascinating article about how clams spawn. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/8/inverts

I would like to think it spawned because I put some new moon lights in last month, however it makes me nervous knowing the water change could have triggered it. I am using the same salt, pre-heated and pre-mixed to the same salinity. The Alk is always a little low for my tank (about 7.5 to the tanks 9.2) so I add some brightwell buffer with the change. Today the tank was at 164 (9.1 dkh) before the change, and 171 (9.5dkh) after. You think that is enough? It pushed the PH from 8.4 to 8.47 as well. Otherwise I just can't see a possible trigger. Mag was 1250.......added 1/4 cup of brightwell mag this evening, but this was after the spawn.

Anyway, it's still pretty cool, but I will keep an eye on things and make sure I haven't missed something. Corals were very happy tonight.......enjoying the meal. ;)
Click to expand...

There is no scientific evidence that adding "night lights" does anything to induce spawning in both corals and clams, and not due to the lack of trying. You'll have far better luck doing water changes to induce spawning.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I certainly don't want to stress out my clam, however it looks fantastic today, so I'm not gonna sweat it too much. Just pretty neat to watch / learn.
 
just be careful, I think you are ok since you only have 1 clam, but I have had a mass spawning in my tank that wiped out all my sps. I came home to a milky white tank. I had to do major water changes for 3 days....I had 7 large clams in a 120g tank.
 
Apon said:
just be careful, I think you are ok since you only have 1 clam, but I have had a mass spawning in my tank that wiped out all my sps. I came home to a milky white tank. I had to do major water changes for 3 days....I had 7 large clams in a 120g tank.
Click to expand...

Thanks Arnold. Yeah, just the one clam, and it's a young one too, so probably no eggs. The skimmer went into overdrive, but everything else was the same. I checked all params today and they were all in line. Clam and corals seem to be fine. Good info though. I have come close to buying more clams, maybe I will just keep the one.
 
Indeed, that is good info Arnold. I always loved the idea of having more clams. I thought of them as perfect citizens from the filtering point of view.
 
JAR said:
My clam spawned last evening. I have not changed anything for two weeks.
Did nothing. Woke up to a clear tank. :)
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Nice! I checked my water yesterday. Everything was fine. I think the tank is plenty big for one clam to spawn without problems. I can see how a small tank could struggle though............especially with multiple clams. Neat stuff!
 
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