Young clam hitch hiker?? ID please!

[Slakker]

I've found this little guy sneaking around my tank, having seen him a couple of times I'm glad I finally caught him somewhere that I can get a picture!

It's probably not a tridacnid, but it is certainly alive. I've seen it open up a little bit here and there and there looks to be some light blue flesh inside the shell. He's pretty mobile, and seems to have no trouble climbing the walls of my tank.

What is he?!?

 

[mbbuna]

well its not a tridacnid.

i dont know what it is but ill PM greenbean and see if he knows

 

[greenbean36191]

It looks like one of the many small ark shells that show up fairly frequently. I've never seen them climbing anything like that though.

 

[Slakker]

It seems to prefer the shade. It fell off the mag-float, so I put it up on top of my rock structure and came back to find it attached in a shaded area towards the underside of the rock, completely shaded. I'll get a new picture of the spot it's chosen.

Thanks for the help in trying to get it IDed...I hope it stays out where I can watch it more often...he's awfully hard to find.

 

[Slakker]

Here's the photo, you can see a little different details of its shell too.

 

[pagojoe]

Yep, it's an Ark Clam. Several species in this family are quite mobile, like yours, but most will attach themselves to the bottoms of rocks or into cracks or burrows in rocks or coral (the byssus threads are very strong). I'm pretty sure yours is Acar plicata.

I can't find a link to a decent photo of this species, although I found several photos that were misidentified as A. plicata. Your clam is typical for the species, and is essentially identical to the living example figured in Okutani's "Marine Mollusks in Japan," bottom of page 848.

Cheers,



Don