My maxima clam is spawning??

Rydogg420 · Jan 24, 2013

So I have a maxima clam that I have had for about a year now. It is only about 4 inches long ATM. But the other day I saw all my fish were huddled up beside my clam and I saw my fish eatting something white. I thought one of my fish finaly tried to eat the clam and the other fish smelled food so they were there geting a free meal. But when I walked over to my tank I saw my clam puffing out lots of white stuff and that is what the fish were going after. Now I really have no idea how clams reproduce, if there are male and female clams and eggs and sperm like most animals need to make babys. My clam was puffing out the white stuff for about 30 min or so, it was so much it was almost clouding up my tank. I took a little vid half way through, but I suck at loading vids on here so Il only do so if someone needs to see it with their own eyes.

It was odd, because I have the clam on the side of my tank with lower light. I have 2 250 watt MH bulbs over each side of my tank. but I have the one bulb off for a few days at a time because I have all my zoas on that side and they dont seem to like that much light. So the MH light was off for about a week, then the day I turn the light bulb back on my clam did this. so I dont know if I made the clam hit its spawning cycle with the light or if it was just a wierd time for the clam to do it?

But now my issues is that my clam doesnt seem too happy after all of this. I am not to sure if the clam is just recovering from spawning or maybe a fish bit it while it was spawning??

I dont know. any help would be great. I have a blue squmose (sp) in my tank too so I do not know if they could mate with each other or anything like that? Like I said I honeslty have no idea how clams reproduce.

skinz78 · Jan 24, 2013

Can you post a pic of the clam, a fish and invert list, and your water params?

occ_motorcycles · Jan 27, 2013

Would love updates on this thread

Rydogg420 · Jan 28, 2013

Well I am still waiting to hear back from anyone on what the heck my clam was doing? I am sad to say the clam did die a few days later. I believe my fish thought the clam was a new food sorce after it puffed out the clouds of (sperm?) it was not its insides like some people were thinking. and my fish would just keep picking at the poor clam until they killed it. I still have the vid and a few pics I might try to post up here because I know a thread isnt crap without fun pics to look at. lol.

skinz78 · Jan 28, 2013

skinz78 said:
Can you post a pic of the clam, a fish and invert list, and your water params?

We need these to accurately answer what was going on. Sounds like you have some very un clam friendly fish, and they killed the clam.

revsgirl · Jan 29, 2013

Very cool!

Chameleon · Feb 1, 2013

well sorry about your loss. sounds interesting though. I guess it could have been sperm or eggs, but like you i dont know how they reproduce except for it is sexually

I would look into how the clam farms do it. from what i remember one clam must die to fertilize a whole bunch of others. maybe your clam was releasing his swimmers and he was the unlucky one who gets to die.

Tom@HaslettMI · Feb 2, 2013

Sorry for your loss. My understanding is that clams will spawn when highly stressed. It's both a survival strategy... and I like to think there's a little "hey why not go out with a bang" attitude. If the clam has been in the tank for a year with the same fish I doubt they were the cause. Light shock from no light for a week could be the cause. Especially if there were any other stressors... What are/were your water parameters looking like?

Tom