I think it depends on the size of the spawn. Before last year I had had a handful of clam spawns and it was never anything significant as far as the tank was concerned. My urchins and snails spawn all the time without incident too, it just gets skimmed out.
Last year's event was HUGE, this one too was pretty bad. I never did see it as a spawn last year, I just found a white smelly tank with a white snotty goo covering the sump. The fish were pretty distressed, I watched my raccoon butterfly lie down and die, I found my flame hawk dead on the perch he was sitting, I never did find my sixline, and the rabbit died 2 days later, although that could have been coincidence but I'll never really know. I never really did know what happened so it was always at the back of my mind, what could it have been that killed those 4 fish, without fixing something it sat as a risk to reoccur.
So when it happened again this year, I assumed the worst. But this time I saw the clam spawning and the evidence left behind was exactly the same. So now I at least finally have some closure on what it was last year.
Fish were going nuts trying to eat the goo last night. (Ew. Whatever floats your boat I guess!)
I would say it's not great for the tank but I think the difficulty here is that not only do I have a few clams (well last year I had like 14 at the time!!), some of them are large (the paisley maxima is the second largest clam in there and is pretty big for a maxima at 7" or 8") but the problem is I think if one of them goes, it can cause a cascade and the others might join in. With big bertha (my football sized squamosa) in there too, if that one were to start I think it would be nearly disastrous for the size of tank that it's in.
I don't think you can really do anything to avoid it though. If it's going to happen it's going to happen ... just be prepared to deal with it quickly. Last year was one of those things that it could have happened several hours before I had noticed it - you know the story, long day at work, swimming lessons, sports or this that the other blah blah blah oh right it's time to feed the fish OH MY WHAT'S THIS.
There's something to be said about not having your main display off in a forgotten corner of the basement!!
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-- Tony
My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
Last edited by Delphinus; 10-11-2010 at 08:22 PM.
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