What happened to t.gigas??

spspirate · May 17, 2013

I never see t.gigas anymore? Whatever happened to them? Are they not being imported anymore? Are they endangered? Is there a ban? Are they being aquacultured anywhere?

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ritter6788 · May 17, 2013

I believe there is a ban on their collection or they aren't collecting from the are they are normally found. I don't know the specifics though.

GHill762 · May 17, 2013

You can still get them I think, they are just harder to come by.. plus they eat small children soooo..... that's no bueno...

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spspirate · May 17, 2013

HAHAHA!! Yeah you gotta watch out!!

skinz78 · May 17, 2013

From my understanding, they are being farmed. But they are being used in the food industry and for restocking the reefs.

spspirate · May 18, 2013

Food industry

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jedidad · May 18, 2013

I read some where that ORA has started a farming project for them. Hopefully they will start offering them soon.

skinz78 · May 18, 2013

I emailed ORA about a year and a half ago and they told me that they gave up on farming them because they felt that there was no market for them.

reefkoi · May 18, 2013

In the countries they raise them the locals like to eat them and they just haven't had mother clams in a while I'm told because the locals like to sneak in and eat em lol. Same goes for a lot of our clams, the blue cool patterned ones taste the best I guess.

They will make a big comeback once they know how much everyone wants them nowadays

skinz78 · May 18, 2013

I second what Chris says, the more threads like this that are out there the bigger the chance of us seeing these again some day soon. The wholesalers watch the forums and they can see what is in demand.

spspirate · May 18, 2013

There gorgeous!! I think they complete some of the bigger reefs in this hobby.

Ron Popeil · May 21, 2013

i know i have been waiting several years for some. what a shame they arent available even though they are being farmed by the hundreds overseas!

jedimasterben · Jun 7, 2013

Ron Popeil said:
i know i have been waiting several years for some. what a shame they arent available even though they are being farmed by the hundreds overseas!

That's an understatement. The number of clams that are farmed each year is nuts.

There is still just a small number people in the hobby as a whole that keep clams - even less of them would want a gigas clam because of how quickly they grow and add shell mass. That translates to lower sales of them.

I've emailed a few places asking to see about importing them, but i haven't gotten any responses back. :/

spspirate · Jun 10, 2013

I saw a photo online but can't remember where it was. It was of farmed maximas for the diner table. Hundreds maybe thousands of them!!!

jedimasterben · Jun 10, 2013

spspirate said:
I saw a photo online but can't remember where it was. It was of farmed maximas for the diner table. Hundreds maybe thousands of them!!!

Palau Clam Farming (Part 1) - YouTube

Palau Clam Farming (Part 2) - YouTube

The Future of Mariculture - YouTube

Watson Clam Farm (Palau) - YouTube

GHill762 · Jun 14, 2013

jedimasterben said:
Palau Clam Farming (Part 1) - YouTube

Palau Clam Farming (Part 2) - YouTube

The Future of Mariculture - YouTube

Watson Clam Farm (Palau) - YouTube

That's awesome

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spspirate · Jun 14, 2013

Thanks for sharing those vids!

Chompers · Jun 25, 2013

spspirate said:
I never see t.gigas anymore? Whatever happened to them? Are they not being imported anymore? Are they endangered? Is there a ban? Are they being aquacultured anywhere?

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All seven of the aquarium trade species are now being aquacultured. They are all still endangered, but the aquarium trade is the first line of income for the clam farms. The ban has a lot of gray areas. It encompasses all species but does not apply to those that are aquacultured since the money from the sales is what funds the conservation effort.

There are two plausible reasons why they haven't been around lately. First, they don't sell well when placed with other species (colors other than brown are fairly rare). Secondly, a farm only has two spawning events per year and one event fills all of the raceways. The smaller farms can only focus on a single species. Another possiblility is that new start up farms are given aquacultured clams from MMDC. The emphasis is to raise clams from aquacultured broodstock. This would cause more farms to be focusing on the same species.

An oddity is that H. hippopus and H. pocellanus are the most efficient earners, but they are rarely seen. Yet the farms are exporting mostly maximas and derasas.