The best clam I've ever seen...

[Pineapple House]

Just thought I would share a picture I came across on another board.

The picture was taken by a Wetpixel member.

Graham

 

[Will]

Holy shyte!!! That IS NICE!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!!
-Will

 

[klasiksb]

WOW! I hope to have one that spectacular one day.

 

[Peabody]

WOW....first...is that in the wild?

Second...the size it looks (plus the shell) remind me of a Gigas, but I've never seen one with a fraction of that color....so....maxima, or Gigas?

 

[Pineapple House]

WOW....first...is that in the wild?

Yes - I think it was from the Solomon.

Second...the size it looks (plus the shell) remind me of a Gigas, but I've never seen one with a fraction of that color....so....maxima, or Gigas?

Maxima

Graham

 

[Vili_Shark]

There were some clams like the one in the picture in LA last week.
This could be one of them.
Amazing clam.
Price is very high, main problem is it is coming from Solomon Islands and all import from Solomon is dominated by one guy who is deciding the price, obviously the price is too high, but nothing we could do about it.
Still, one of the best looking Max.

 

[Trumpet12]

WOW!!!!! That is a really pretty clam!

 

[Fish-o-holic]

WHOA. :thumbsup:

 

[Julio]

Hey Graham,
How big is this clam? Did you take that picture or did you get it off a site? Is taht pic in a natural reef?

 

[Pineapple House]

Hey Graham,
How big is this clam?

I have no clue...

Did you take that picture or did you get it off a site? Is taht pic in a natural reef?

I did not take the picture- John Davies was the photographer. I found this picture on another board. The picture was taken in the Solomon islands.

Here are the full contest entrees:
http://www.wetpixel.com/modules.php...ame=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

A better discription of the photo:
Description: this VERY large clam was an amazing sight
Location: Solomon Islands
Camera: Nikon CP5000
Housing: L&M Tetra 5000
Strobe(s): 2 @ YS-60
EXIF Data: 1/125 @ F8


Graham

 

[Julio]

thanks for the link.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I wouldn't be so sure it's T. maxima. Looks more like T. gigas to me.....

 

[PSEUDOREEFER]

It's a maxima. There are scutes, but not huge scutes on the shell. Plus gigas doesn't normally have ridges in the shell that pronounced.

 

[Peabody]

The coloration is sure maxima, but man, the "zig zag" of the shell/mantle is VERY elongated....moreso than I've ever seen in a maxima, maybe it's because it's a very large maxima, bigger/older than 99.999% in captivity

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Here is the shell of a T. gigas . I've never seen a maxima with a shell shaped like that- and I've seen some really big maximas. I vote gigas.

 

[wjgeese]

I'm with Gary.
Although color does indeed look like a teardrop max, the shell shape definitely looks gigas to me. Many big gigas clams get those ridges that you see here...Plus gigas have little blue teardrop shaped iridiphores. It could be that this one has lots of them...
The Knop book shows a dark pic of one that is covered in blue
spots...from what I recall he stated that among 4000 clams, only two had that coloration. Has the market now taken a new direction....teardrop gigas??? First it was blue squamosas, now this....

just my 2cents
Bill

 

[manderx]

MaGigas hybrid?

 

[Vili_Shark]

In the Knop book there is a Blue spotted Gigas, but not similar at all to this one.
The pattern we see here is of a S.I. tear drop maxima.
I agree that the shell looks different.
I think that clams coming from different regions wont show EXACTLY the same shell type.
For example, the Red Sea Max, young clams, till they are 3", do not look exactly similar (shell) to the Max coming from Marshall, they are both elongated though, but the Red Sea one, when young is almost flat, when growing , they develope a similar shell.

What I'm trying to say is, that there might be slight differences in the shell shape in Max that are coming from different places, could be due to their size, as I mention the young Red Sea ones, could be that the above Solomon Max, is abit different cause it is at it full size, and that's how the full size Max looks over there.

 

[wjgeese]

while I agree that not all species have the same shaped shell, I personally have never seen a max with that scalloped of a shell margin. In addition, most, if not all teardrop max's that i've seen all have a more elongated shell than other maximas not to mention that they tend to have more scallops than gigas (which usually have 3-4). This clam is definitely one unusual looking clam to say the least! It probably is a max given its mantle coloration, but the shell look so gigas to me.

Anyway, cool clam. It's now my desktop!

Bill

 

[PerryinCA]

Couple things to keep in mind -

1. clams can be hybrids, and that may be what we are looking at

2. Large clams often lose thier scutes to various environmental conditions.

I have no clue what type of clam it is, but it sure looks awesome!

-Perry