I got some ?'s on these bi-colored clams

[acrodave]

Please correct me if im wrong on any of this..I know its the zooxanthellae that makes up the calm color.So being bi-color at the moment they have two diff kinds of zooxanthellae in the mantel. Now i know corals are allways expelling and abourbing zooxanthellae all the time and useing the ones that work best in the light they are under. I dont know if clams are the same way or not. But if they are what will keep them bi-colored. Or will they just change to one color if that is the case people are being riped off for the price of these. Im not hateing on them i would take one in a min if they stay that way. Dose any one have one that they have had for a while.Or can you explain how they stay two colors....thanks

 

[NCSUsalt]

clam mantles are actually colorless. it is the iridophores in the mantle not the zooxanthellae that give them that coloration

 

[acrodave]

I dont know about that i have heard that clams have more zoo per sq. in than corals do. and i have seen that they can bleach.. im not saying your wrong. thats just what i have seen in books ..according to knop the iridophores bundle the light and direct it into the lower layers of the mantle. this is the reason why the zoo concentrate around the iridophores which is the indicated by the dark rings around the basr of the little elevations..ie the blue spots on a gigas around the rim of the mantle

 

[Toddrtrex]

I am more "in too" anemones then clams, but I think this still will hold true.

This is my understanding, and I could be wrong.

Zoax is basically brownish it color --- with different shades, but still a shade of brown. It is the pigment of the anemone/clam that will give it its color. When they bleach both the zoax and the pigments are expelled -- first the zoax, and then the pigment to try to get more light to the few remaining zoax.

So, I would think that the bi-colored ones would keep their color. Just like the two Haddonis (( carpet anemones )) that I have in the same tank, one is blue and the other is green. If zoax was the only thing providing the color, it would seem that after 2 years of having them in the same tank they would now be very similar in color.

 

[acrodave]

Humm very interresting thanks Todd .. any one eles have any input

 

[saltygeek]

Yeah, from what I get out of James Fatheree's clam book it is the iridiophores (uv protection) that gives the mantles color and sheen. AS Todd said the zoaxanthelle are brownish.

 

[NCSUsalt]

^^ the color from the iridophores will change based on light intensity and the way the light refracts from it.

 

[IFbettas]

If you ever look at a bleached clam there is still some color in the iridophores, and as stated above they are whay gives the clam most of their colors. The colors are determined when they are very young. I was reading in Fatheree's book that the clam farmers in the Pacific sacrifice their best/ nicest clam when they are breeding. They chop it up and put it in a blender before pouring it out into the vats containing the young clams. The young clams will absorb the iridophores and zooxanthellae that was in the old clam and will become a very similar color. Based on that I would assume that the bicolor clams should stay that color.