Australia's largest exporter of coral and exotic marine life has celebrated its biggest spawning of giant clams.
Monsoon Aquatics is now growing thousands of baby giant clams at its aquaculture facility in Darwin, which are destined for export to customers around the world.
The six-month-old clams, which are just 3-5 millimetres in length, have just started to show their colours.
Facility manager Sophie Dyer said it was an exciting time for the business "because colour is everything".
"The goal is to get nice blues and tealy greens, but it can be a mixed bag," she said.
"You can spawn from adults that have the most desirable colours and you can still get brown [giant clams].
"So we're hoping to get a majority of them to be blue, that's the fashion in clams at the moment."
Aquarium trade in love with clams
Ms Dyer said the baby clams should be ready for sale next year as long as they had reached at least 5 centimetres in length.
"These clams will go all over the world," she said.
"A lot of the Asian markets and the United States love giant clams."
The worldwide aquarium industry is estimated to be worth over $US4 billion, with giant clams ranging in value depending on size and colour.
Ms Dyer said rare varieties for household aquariums could retail for up to $1,000 and large, colourful clams for public aquariums could fetch $10,000.
She said in the wild, giant clams could grow beyond 1 metre in size and live for more than 100 years.
Monsoon Aquatics has other facilities in Cairns and Bundaberg, and last year was named the Australian Exporter of the Year.
The company said it was initially aiming to do two successful giant clam spawns per year.
