Flame Scallop

Here are some pictures of my flame scallop.

And the maxima, positioned properly upright, above it. When I uprighted the clam, it had already attached part of itself to the rock, so I had to use a seashell to wedge it as I didn't want to break off its byssal foot. Clams that are harvested in the wild are often doomed because they've been yanked from their rock.

Care for Tridacnid clams such as these includes intense lighting... strong power compacts for nanos, being sure to place the clams high in the tank and always on rock. Smaller specimens need some form of filter food like DT's phytoplankton routinely. Also, they need good calcium levels for their shells.

Flame scallops, however, are not photosynthetic and do not contain zoxanthanelle, the symbiotic algaes living within corals and clams that give the inverts their color. Flame scallops need the smallest form of filter food, like phytoplankton, and it is believed they do best in unskimmed tanks as they can absorb the protein nutrient.

The scallops actually move by closing their bivalves real fast to scuttle along the sand. Mine has wedged itself into place, as you can see. They also will attach to rock so it is crucial not to move them.

- Josh
http://joshday.com