I just bought an awesome maxima. It's about 5 inches. It is all irridescent pale yellow, almost white. It glows like a pohnpei (except it's canary yellow) and supposedly the LFS I bought it from claims it came from the red sea. What do you guys think? Could it be a red sea maxima? I haven't heard much about these guys. I only have cultured clams in my show tank so I put it in a quarantine tank for now. I'll post a pic as soon as I can get my hands on a digital camera.
Red Sea Maxima?
- Thread starter leeac
- Start date
acroporas
New member
You were right to start off with, it is a maxima. Those scutes on the shell are a dead giveaway it isnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t a crocea or deresa. That leaves only maxima and squamosa. Squamosa will have a symmetrical shell(shaped like an equilateral triangle) while maxima's sell is more elongate(shaped more like 30-60-90 triangle). Also the mantle on a squamosa is nearly as wide as long, making it like a circle or squarish, while maxima is much more elongate/rectangular. You should note that wild caught maximas may not have scutes. Because they break off when it digs into hard substrate. The presence of and quantity scutes suggest that your maxima is not from the Red Sea but is aquacultured.
It is a perfectly healthy crocea. The mantle is a nice gold color, no bleaching. Great find. I have seen 7 - 10 of this color morph of crocea come in. All wild clams.
smokinreefer
Premium Member
i agree, a very nice crocea.
even crocea's have scutes.
scutes on a maxima are usually more pronounced.
i have seen a few wild croceas with that color variation lately as well.
plus, when you've seen enough clams, you will notice that the mantle shape and patterns are usually quite distinct between the different species of clams. or atleast IME the mantle can generally tell you what kind of clam it is. then you check the shell to confirm your ID.
i am actually thinking of picking up one of those bad boys from the LFS soon.
even crocea's have scutes.
scutes on a maxima are usually more pronounced.
i have seen a few wild croceas with that color variation lately as well.
plus, when you've seen enough clams, you will notice that the mantle shape and patterns are usually quite distinct between the different species of clams. or atleast IME the mantle can generally tell you what kind of clam it is. then you check the shell to confirm your ID.
i am actually thinking of picking up one of those bad boys from the LFS soon.
I post the same first pic to the people at clamsdirect and everyone who answered there is telling me that it's a maxima. I didn't get a chance to show them the foot pic yet, but they truly believe that it's a maxima and the pronouncement of the scales confirm this. I'm comparing the clam's bottom/foot to my maximas and it looks pretty much the same(FWIW,but I'm no expert)! I went back to the LFS and the croceas that he is selling has practically no scales/scutes at all.
mantisshrimp
Member
crocea.
smokinreefer
Premium Member
uh...yeah.
smokinreefer
Premium Member
from what i know, 6" is the average max size of croceas.
Similar threads
