Research Report: Aquarium Clam Disease

April 10, 2008

Colorful imported clams can make your aquarium look good, but something dangerous lurking inside could put the shellfish industry at risk. University of Florida researchers have discovered a foreign disease inside aquacultured giant clams imported from Vietnam. It can’t harm humans, but UF pathologist Barbara Sheppard worries aquarium owners might dump their tanks and the clams into the environment.

Sheppard: “If it were to get into our waterways, it has the potential to essentially kill a lot of shellfish and shut down or greatly damage some industries. And so at the same time, the industries are damaged because the eco-system is damaged, so it’s both an eco-system and a shellfish industry issue.”

A domestic strain of the pathogen has hit oyster populations hard along the Atlantic coast. Now here comes a new foreign strain.

Sheppard: “It’s very important, if you buy an animal that’s exotic and you put it in your tank, that you never release it into natural waterways and if at all possible, treat the animal and its tissue and any water it’s been in with bleach and put it down a drain you know is going to go to some sort of water treatment plant.”

There’s little regulation controlling importation of Asian clams and experts say clams infected with the disease have almost certainly made their way into aquariums all over the country.