Tridacna Clams

Introduction To Clams Hot Top Rated Write a Review! - Visitor Ratings: An introduction to the care and description of the most common clams kept in the marine aquarium. - Visit Homepage

Feeding Clams Hot Write a Review! - Rate It! By Daniel Knop A Q&A session regarding the feeding and care of tridacna clams including crocea, derasa, maxima, gigas and hippopus. - Visit Homepage

Identifying The Tridacnid Clams Write a Review! - Visitor Ratings: by James W. Fatherree, M.Sc. Intro: Quite a few years ago when I first began the transition from being a fish-only marine aquarist to a reef aquarist, I became particularly fascinated with the tridacnid clams. Aside from their obvious beauty, a large part of my interest was due to the fact that I found it simply amazing that such a wide array of color schemes and patterns could be exhibited by a mere handful of species. While making the clams aesthetically intriguing, this variety of appearances also led to the early realization that it was rather pointless to simply glance at the decorated, fleshy extensions of many of the clams' bodies in order to attempt to identify these animals to species. In fact, as I would learn, it is the shell of each specimen which is typically the key to identification, not just the flesh. - Visit Homepage

Greetings Clamrades... Hot Write a Review! - Rate It! BY RONALD SHIMEK Ph.D. Intro: All reef aquarists are familiar with the beautiful tridacnid clams found in the shallow waters of coral reefs throughout the Pacific. Daniel Knop has a column devoted to them in this magazine and has discussed them in some detail. Tridacnids, however, are very unusual clams. They have symbiotic zooxanthellae and they also have an odd orientation to their internal anatomy relative to their shells. In this column, I will discuss some aspects of basic clam biology and some of the other species that are occasionally available in the aquarium trade. - Visit Homepage

Tridacna gigas -- Gruesome Monster or Harmless Tank Inhabitant Hot Write a Review! - Rate It! BY DANIEL KNOP - Visit Homepage

The Wonderful Color Patterns of Tridacna squamosa Write a Review! - Rate It! BY DANIEL KNOP - Visit Homepage

What's in a Shape- Variations in tridacnid shell formation Write a Review! - Rate It! BY DANIEL KNOP Intro: Occasionally, tridacnid clams exhibit odd shell shapes. These may be a due to a deformity that occurred in their natural habitat or on a clam farm, they may be the result of inbreeding among farm-raised individuals, or the clam’s growth may have been stunted or altered because it was forced to grow under unnatural conditions. Most of these unusual shapes should not be considered harmful or pathologic in any way — they are just an indication that the clam was able to adapt to a different or unsuitable environment. - Visit Homepage

Reef Tank Design for Giant Clam Lovers Hot Write a Review! - Rate It! BY DANIEL KNOP Intro: One of the most important reasons for the popularity of giant clams is surely their interesting coloration. The blue, green or golden color patterns that can be seen on the syphonal mantle of Tridacna crocea, T. maxima or T. derasa fascinate most reefkeepers. It is very unfortunate, however, that most of these colors are visible only if the clams are viewed from the same direction as the light that hits the syphonal mantle — the top. The more the angle of view differs from the direction of the light, the less color is evident on the clam. In the usual setup the clam is viewed through the front glass, although it receives illumination from the top. Under these conditions even a clam with a strong blue color and nice pattern will look quite brownish and the blue color will fade. - Visit Homepage

How to Choose Healthy Giant Clams at the Aquarium Store Hot Write a Review! - Rate It! BY DANIEL KNOP Intro: Tridacnid clams — and clams in general — have a much more complex physiology than corals. Their ability to regenerate damaged tissues or organ systems is much more limited, and, unlike a soft coral, a clam often cannot recover from damage caused by unsuitable environmental conditions. So, we must use caution when choosing a clam from an aquarium store. Here are a few hints that will help you in making sure that a clam is healthy and has been kept under suitable conditions. More detailed information about this important topic can be found in the chapters “Buying Clams in the Pet Shop” and “Clam Diseases” in my book Giant Clams (Knop 1996). - Visit Homepage

Placing Giant Clams in the Reef Tank Hot Write a Review! - Rate It! BY DANIEL KNOP Intro: Tridacnid clams are known as durable tank inhabitants that don’t require much effort in terms of their care. This is generally true after the clams are well adapted to the aquarium environment. But, because all environmental factors in an aquarium can differ remarkably from the clam’s former habitat, these beautiful mollusks can have considerable difficulty during this period of adjustment to things such as illumination, pH, temperature, salinity and water current — to name just a few. And some of these changes will probably be drastic. - Visit Homepage

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