BoiseStateFan
New member
I have a crocea clam that ive had about a year and it seems to be getting bright blue streaks. I have a lot of clams so I suppose they could have always been there, but the streaks seem new.
Can clams change color?
- Thread starter BoiseStateFan
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Don-Coraleone
New member
yeah i think as they grow you could see some color change.
a4twenty
Premium Member
they can change colour ( tone ) but not to a completely different colour. a blue clam wont change to green / yellow / purple but it's shade ( tone ) will brighten or darken depending on tank and lighting conditions. mantle patterns can develop as the clams matures but again, there will be no drastic colour change.
skyfireblaze
New member
For what it's worth ...
Here's a quote from January's Advanced Aquarist Magazine Article on Tridacna Coloration :
The most common environmental factor mentioned in hobby literature is that of light intensity or spectral quality. Alo (2005), in tests involving almost 400 T. maxima specimens distributed in 12 greenhouse systems and using different lighting setups in each system ('full greenhouse' light - peak PAR of 1,300-1,400mmolÃ"”m²Ã"”sec; 'shaded greenhouse' light - peak PAR of 700-1,000 mmolÃ"”m²Ã"”sec; and 10,000K metal halide light - maximum PAR of 1,450 mmolÃ"”mÃ"”sec, decreasing to 280 mmolÃ"”m²Ã"”sec (!) after 13 weeks), found only one T. maxima to shift coloration (from green to yellow) during the experiment's progress (this specimen was held in a 'shaded greenhouse' tank). However, during the clams' light acclimation period (an initial 5-hour photoperiod increased by 30 minutes daily until a 12-hour photoperiod was obtained) fourteen clams changed from green to gold, and two switched from blue to gold.
I understood the last part of the paragraph to mean that some clams (~3% to 4% in this study) can change their colors; at least for the T. maxima specimens in that study. Of course, those changes in color all occurred over a rather short period of time, not the one year or so of the original post.
Here's a quote from January's Advanced Aquarist Magazine Article on Tridacna Coloration :
The most common environmental factor mentioned in hobby literature is that of light intensity or spectral quality. Alo (2005), in tests involving almost 400 T. maxima specimens distributed in 12 greenhouse systems and using different lighting setups in each system ('full greenhouse' light - peak PAR of 1,300-1,400mmolÃ"”m²Ã"”sec; 'shaded greenhouse' light - peak PAR of 700-1,000 mmolÃ"”m²Ã"”sec; and 10,000K metal halide light - maximum PAR of 1,450 mmolÃ"”mÃ"”sec, decreasing to 280 mmolÃ"”m²Ã"”sec (!) after 13 weeks), found only one T. maxima to shift coloration (from green to yellow) during the experiment's progress (this specimen was held in a 'shaded greenhouse' tank). However, during the clams' light acclimation period (an initial 5-hour photoperiod increased by 30 minutes daily until a 12-hour photoperiod was obtained) fourteen clams changed from green to gold, and two switched from blue to gold.
I understood the last part of the paragraph to mean that some clams (~3% to 4% in this study) can change their colors; at least for the T. maxima specimens in that study. Of course, those changes in color all occurred over a rather short period of time, not the one year or so of the original post.
