Improved method for shipping Tridacna gigas seed

Four-month-old juvenile Tridacna gigas were placed in plastic bags and exposed to pure oxygen in combination with four treatments: seawater, seawater+antibiotic, wet paper toweling (below clams), wet paper toweling (above and below clams). The only treatment which had high survival (98.5%) after 30 h application was seawater+antibiotic (streptomycin sulphate, 25 ppm). Desiccation as a cause of death was apparent, especially in smaller size classes in other treatments. A shipment of 5000 5.5-month T. gigas juveniles was sent to Fiji Fisheries. Despite a 40-h period from packing to reimmersing clams, survival was 64% after 4 days of reimmersion in the quarantine system in Fiji.