I don’t understand the arguement, I agree with T. Maxima having rows all the way to the bottom and crocea being smooth, thats what I have been saying.?!
The original pic in this thread shows a clam with no more than a few rows at the very top and hardly noticeable unless you lift the mantle… a true maxima has them all the way to the bottom. without these characteristics they might as well both be called Tridacna clams.
Tim
I'll do this since I'm far from a expert I'll get Chris to look at it and post his opinion. He has lot more knowledge on them then I do. I have one that has every trait of a squammy and he's telling me it's still a maxima. The only true 100% way to tell is to cut it apart and look inside.Sounds like Tim is correct, since none of the books tells us to cut it open, and then what? Need a better picture.
I don’t know if anyone followed my link but here is one of the pics, max on the left crocea on the right.
Tim, its a maxima :BEER
If you follow a crocea up to the top, you have None of the shelves that the maxima does, it is flat all the way up, that is not the case with paul’s clam. furthermore, it is very obvious from the mantel that it’s a maxima, but the pic’ you just posted shows you what I mean about the shelves. Just because Paul’s has less shelves doesn’t make it any less of a maxima lOl
[quote=“Jcling, post:26, topic:3505”]
Tim, its a maxima :BEER
If you follow a crocea up to the top, you have None of the shelves that the maxima does, it is flat all the way up, that is not the case with paul’s clam. furthermore, it is very obvious from the mantel that it’s a maxima, but the pic’ you just posted shows you what I mean about the shelves. Just because Paul’s has less shelves doesn’t make it any less of a maxima lOl[/quote]
If anyone read the tridacna ID page I linked you would see that crocea can have “shelves” in the top 1/4 of their shell, the defining factor is weather its to the bottom or not.
This is also a Crocea
It’s a maxima.
But i have to say im flattered to see two links to posts i made on clam ID’s used to ID this clam :GEEK: Even though you cant see much of its shell you can see enough to tell its a maxima. I will admit i didnt look at the shell to ID this clam (ill get to that).
This is a wild collected maxima that had time to bore down into coral or rock (or that had grown up around it) so the lower scutes never grew or were worn away. Just under the mantle you can see two closely spaced but wide scutes. The wide scutes tells you its a maxima and the closely spaced, along with the lack of scutes lower on the shell tells you it a wild collected clam.
As for what i saw in the first photo.
The over all pattern is much more organized then what you see in a typical crocea.
Now look at the width of the the central mantle of a crocea as compared to a maxima.
(crocea)
(maxima)
Croceas will have a wider central mantle then maximas .
(I hate photoshop. Adding those arrows wore me out verdict_in)
will try for some id clarifying pics after the lights come on.
<bowdown> <bowdown> <bowdown> Thanks there [fly]SENIOR[/fly] clam master <bowdown> <bowdown> <bowdown>Had to call in the “big guns” huh?
Thanks for gracing us with your presence here on our itty bitty website Chris! lOl
Great clam pics, and great info guys!
Nope just getting another opinion thats all. If I was a 100% every time in my identification, I wouldn't even had bothered but I'm not always sure myself.took a toothbrush to the shell. that’s why it’s retracted. sorry about the focus, but you can definitely see the elongatedness. tim, it’s the same in your pictures. maxis have 1 side longer than the others. croceas are more symmetrical.
Well crap that picture tells a whole different story! the other pic just looked like a smooth shell covered in coraline! The other pic you had I couldn’t see any ridges at all, jokes on me I guess, I was just basing what I said on the first pics.
Classic elongated shell shape too.
the algae did change the view, as i said earlier, sorry.
Dirty clams get me in trouble every time!
Keep your clam clean! BoNg BoNg :BEER :BEER
That was fun, picture worth 1k words, and we learned a lot! At list I did.
Btw Beautiful clam moliken GolfC
I was along with Tim, until I saw that last pic of the cleaned off clam!
[quote=“saltcreep, post:31, topic:3505”]
Thanks for gracing us with your presence here on our itty bitty website Chris! lOl[/quote]
lOl i read over here every day ;D
very glad all is straightened out, and yes, it is a beautiful clam, cleaner too.