clam farming

[Rob Top]

I am working thorugh differant ideas on how to set up my new fishroom to be profitable. The goal is to sustaine my systems and make a small profit (ie jewlery and spa trips for a loving wife). Clam farming is one thought I have had. I realize that no one will really want to give me the name of thier connection as that will create more competition for you. I have done several searches on the web and am coming up empty though. If you are willing a direction there would be great.
The main question is in system set-up. I am planning on 2 120gal troughs. They are 12" deep. Plumbed together making it about 300 gallons with sump. So some system questions are
CA reactor or Kalk
Skimmer selection...since clams are filter feeders would over skimming they syetem be a bad idea, should I under skim, don't skim.
Sand bed or bare botton. I was planning sand bed so that the clams would not be tempted to attach to the bottom.
Lighting the troughs are 96" long and 24" wide. I am thinking 4 MH bulbs. I normally run 400w on my tanks, but those are deep. Should I go with 250's or 175. What if I went with fewer lights and used 1000 watters?
What about flow through a system like this? I was thinking moderate.
And finally should there be other life forms in the system? Snails shrimp things of that nature to add to the systems nutients and thus feed the clams?

 

[Anonymous]

have you researched clam spawning, larval developement/rearing, etc. ?

 

[Mike King]

Clams need to be at least 5 years old to reproduce sperm and eggs.(T. maxima, T.derasa, T. crocea, I'm not sure of T. squammosa and T. gigas I mainly design and help set up the facilities) It takes another 1.5 years to raise them up to sellable size (1-2") some like T.derasa and T. gigas grow quicker.

CTSA has several publications on spawning and raising clams CORL has transfered one of their VHS videos on clam farming to DVD and will be making a new Clam spawning and settlement video in 2006 Contact me if interested.

CORL will be setting up several more clam farms in 2006 also and we will be keeping progress updates on the new Tokelau and Am. Samoa web sites for all to see (under development).

We just hired a clam framing specialist to work with CORL he's in the Philippine Islands ATM and will be transfering to American Samoa in Jan 06. Once he's here I'm sure he'd help you out with the info needed.

The CTSA publications numbers 130, 143, and info sheets 1&2 on giant clam mariculture will give you a good idea of what's needed and how to do it. There's also some good work from AIM's that may still be availiable if you search for it. CTSA is The Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture BTW.

You will need bigger raceways to start, we do minimum of 25'x6'x3' and use a flow thru system, in a system like your planning you could kill your broodstock quite easily if a unexpected stress spawning were to ocurr and you weren't there to take action to correct the problem and make water changes. Big skimmer and carbon will help prevent it from occuring.

My advice is propagate corals in those systems. You can do clams but it will not be profitable on such a small high energy use set up.

Mike

 

[Rob Top]

I guess a better term for what I was thinking is "growing out" Is it not possible to buy a large quanity of small clams to grow out. Something like under an inch and grow out to a couple inches. Or whould using this planed system still be better for corals. The fishroom has room for these 2 troughs plus 3 more. I could do it all as a central system but was thinking of making it two seperate ones. One with the 2 troughs and the other with three. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I guess a better term for what I was thinking is "growing out" Is it not possible to buy a large quanity of small clams to grow out. Something like under an inch and grow out to a couple inches. Or whould using this planed system still be better for corals. The fishroom has room for these 2 troughs plus 3 more. I could do it all as a central system but was thinking of making it two seperate ones. One with the 2 troughs and the other with three. Thanks

how long do you think it will take , and how much do you think it'll cost, to raise all those clams to a marketable size for a profit?

plz include ALL overhead expenses, and throw in a few major losses along the way (like 2-3 system crashes)

 

[Rob Top]

tuff question to answer when I am asking the same ones my self. A LFS has clam sales where they are $25 for a "tiny" clam. Based on growth rates I am speculated that the clam would be at a 3 inch size in 1.5-2 yrs. If I bought 80 clams @ that price thats 2K then 2 yrs later I could get 60-80+ each depending on coloration and type. Ave $75 each that's a 4K gross. Less expensies call it 1.5K less a trip to the spa for the wife or some bling gives me a grand for more fishroom fun. With this speculation I am guessing I could get the clams cheaper than $25 as the LFS sells for that and isn't buying 80 a pop. Remember my profit goals are not to replace my current job, but sustain an insain fishroom addiction and spoil the wife a bit.

 

[Rob Top]

ok so a grand isn't enough for a 2 yr investment. I did 10x that in a year breeding bettas. Point is I can't say how much I would expect to make with out knowing the cost of stock and taking all things into consideration. All things such as the answer to the questions originally asked. So Vitz how about you answer my questions so I know how to answer your. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

ok so a grand isn't enough for a 2 yr investment. I did 10x that in a year breeding bettas. Point is I can't say how much I would expect to make with out knowing the cost of stock and taking all things into consideration. All things such as the answer to the questions originally asked. So Vitz how about you answer my questions so I know how to answer your. :lol:

you're the one with the crazy ideas, you figger it out

i was trying to make a point-that you will most likely actually LOSE money, not make it

 

[nanocat]

Maybe in Rockford Ill people pay $75 for a 4" clam, but certainly not on the West Coast 8O

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe in Rockford Ill people pay $75 for a 4" clam, but certainly not on the West Coast 8O

I've seen 4" crap crocea and Maximas fetch 3-500 here in the past couple of years.

 

[dizzy]

I've seen 4" crap crocea and Maximas fetch 3-500 here in the past couple of years.

That's quite a range. How much is it in US dollars? :wink:

 

[coastal]

you should see what natural sunlight does to a clam

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe you should think instead about raising the other kinds of clams, they can be very very profitable...


then you can set up a small restaurant and sell them on the half shell.

 

[spawner]

Rob,

You might want use the clams to remove NO3 from your systems. They are a great filters, plus you can sell them a year later. I have a squammosa that went from around 1.5" to 7" in a year. I would think you could get a good price for a large captive breed clam like that. squammosa and deresa wil give you the best growth results.


Growing Giant Clam (Tridacna Derasa) in Aquaculture Effluent

Lin J.; Sparsis M.; Hagood R.W.
Source: Aquarium Sciences and Conservation, Volume 3, Numbers 1-3, 2001, pp. 225-230(6)


Abstract:
Juvenile giant clams (Hippopus spp. and Tridacna spp.) are highly valuable and popular in the aquarium trade due to their brightly colored mantles with various patterns. Giant clams are unique bivalves in that they possess symbiotic zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium). A previous study by the authors demonstrated the feasibility of culturing giant clams in aquaculture effluent. Among the four species tested (Tridacna derasa, T. gigas, T. maxima, and T. squamosa), T. derasa was the most suitable for culturing in effluent. The present study compared the growth, survivorship, and condition indexes of T. derasa (mean initial shell length about 83 mm) cultured in fish culture effluent or seawater for six months. The clams grew significantly faster (1.29 vs. 0.93 mm shell length/month) and had marginally significant (p = 0.076) higher survivorship (94.1% vs. 77.7%) than those in control seawater. Total (shell and tissue) and tissue weight indexes (g/mm shell length), and mitotic index (% dividing zooxanthellae) were similar between the treatment and control clams; whereas zooxanthellae density (number of zooxanthellae/g clam tissue) of the clams in the effluent tanks was 2.5 times higher than that in control tanks.