Sometimes as hobbyists we don’t always know where the animals in your tank originate from. For the last 4 years we have been the exclusive importers of clams and fish from some of the remote islands of French Polynesia. Dr. Mac traveled there to set up our collection station along with our partner in Tahiti. We collect clams and fish from the remote Austral Islands where many of the smaller islands we collect from are uninhibited and the populations of a Maxima clams are the largest in the world with hundreds of millions of them! Dr. Mac set up our station and the protocols for hand collection of fish without any drugs and a multi step process for treating them and quarantine so that they are all eating and healthy before they are exported to us in the US. We bring shipments in once or twice a month and sell to all the wholesalers and many retail stores as well as on our site.
Check out our selection of French Polynesian Fish and Clams!
Fish
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/prodList.asp?idcategory=5&pMaxItemsPerPage=1000
Clams
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/prodList.asp?idcategory=3&pMaxItemsPerPage=1000
The Remote Austral Island Chain in French Polynesia
Most of the islands are atolls, a central island surrounded by a lagoon and the reef, most clams are found inside the lagoon within a depth of 1-4 feet.
Reef areas outside the lagoon and inner reef in the islands where we collect are predominantly rocky out croppings with very few corals and some clams. The waters are crystal clear and pristine!
There are so many clams, hundreds of millions of Maximas, that the smaller islands are literally composed of clam shells!
Of the hundreds of millions, only a few are considered ultra quality, we import about 10,000 annually
About one in every 10,000 is the rare Chimera clam, locally called the two-faced clam.
When we first set up our collection station we also began culturing clams, we now export mostly cultured clams, a two to three inch cultured clam takes about 4 years to produce
We also collect lots of fish, all of these are quite plentiful in the French Polynesia waters. Rarely we find beauties like this very rarely seen in captivity male Atavai Wrasse. Most “rare” items in the hobby are not actually rare in the wild, just found only in very remote areas or where collection is very difficult.
In the more remote Australs, small Black Tangs are relatively plentiful, problem is these islands are not easy to get to, collecting the fish, holding them, and getting them back to our main station for processing in Tahiti is difficult.
