MARICULTURE  AND RESTOCKING OF GIANT CLAMS: THE INDONESIA -PHILIPPINE EXPERIENCE  

Giant clams are important inhabitants of the reef and to restock depleted reefs mariculture attempts were made since  the early 80's. Spontaneous and induced spawnings and rearing of larvae and juveniles were done. Spawning induction was administered through  thermal shock and serotonin injection.

A  total of 54 spawnings were conducted from August 2010 to August 2012. All were induced except for two spontaneous ones observed in H. hippoopus in 2010. Only  Tridacna  squamosa and Hippopus hippopus  produced viable eggs & larvae (Fig. 1). The rest of the clams either released only sperm  or did not respond at all. About 200 one-year  old juveniles of H. hippopus  (Fig. 2B) and 73,000 three-month old T. squamosa (Fig. 2A) were harvested and  prepared for  deployment. Around 1000 juveniles of H. hippopus (191 clams) and T. squamosa  (809 clams) were restocked in two reefs in Kupang City (Fig. 3).