What is this?
- Thread starter Zhain
- Start date
Uploading these photographs again with circles around the hitch hiker. Hoping someone will recognize this thing.
It looks like some sort of clam. It has hairlike tenticles projecting from it's shell and spends most of it's time open and pulsing with a worm or tongue projecting out. If you hit it with light, it closes it's shell. It's really ugly and fairly large. The shell looks to be about 3/4 inch.
It looks like some sort of clam. It has hairlike tenticles projecting from it's shell and spends most of it's time open and pulsing with a worm or tongue projecting out. If you hit it with light, it closes it's shell. It's really ugly and fairly large. The shell looks to be about 3/4 inch.
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ReefNomad
New member
There are all sorts of bivalves (clams, oysters, mussels, cockles, scallops, etc) that set up shop on hard corals. Actual ID would be difficult considering how well-encrusted yours is, but it's an almost certainty that it's safe.
That little critter is a living filter, and it'll process its entire body volume for nutrient constantly.
The coral will be fine, they grow commensally with bivalves all the time in the wild. Large bivalves are often 'anchor organisms', encouraging the growth of other organisms merely by their presence.
That little critter is a living filter, and it'll process its entire body volume for nutrient constantly.
The coral will be fine, they grow commensally with bivalves all the time in the wild. Large bivalves are often 'anchor organisms', encouraging the growth of other organisms merely by their presence.
