Pic of my 1st clam

[ShootinBlanks]

Here's a pic of my first clam. I purchased it as a squamosa, but after posting on RC I guess it is a maxima. When I bought it he wasn't open very much and the guy mentioned that he had never seen a squamosa with this pattern...lol. Wonder why? I'm not an expert on clams by no means so when I went to Premium Aquatics and they had some baby "squamosas" for $15 I wanted to try my luck. I have 740 watts of VHO over a 125, which should be OK, but I wanted a squamosa because they demand less light. Well I got a good deal and I will do my best to make sure he does well. What do you think?

Any tips for taking pics of clams? I have a Nikon 995 and had a hell of a time getting the colors to come out right.

 

[KenH]

The shell of both Squamosa and Maxima can look similar due to the scutes along the edges. The Maxima tends to have smaller projections which tend to be worn down on the lower portion of the shell. Also the shell tends to be less symmetrical as can be seen in the pic below

Notice how the shell is much longer on one side of the abyssal gland than the other. The Squamosa shell is more symmetrical.

Maximas require a fair amount of light, but I successfully kept a baby under a 175W Mecury vapor light, so they don't seem to be too picky about the quality. Still have that clam 6 years later.

Photographing color of clams can be tricky since the color tends to be most representative when viewed from the direction of the lighting. Not usually easy to get a camera into that position. The best pics are usually taken looking straight down at the clam, but this isn't usually very easy to accomplish in the normal tank setup. The main trick is to take lots of pics!

--- Ken

 

[Bill2]

Looks like a maxima to me. Nice clam

 

[Minh Nguyen]

That is a Squa....Maxima. Nice clam
Minh