Two hitch hickers one clam

[Northern Reef]

I purchased a Maxima clam on boxing day. There are two other things growing on the one side of it.One I believe is an oyster but am not sure, not sure on the other black thing.

[RayWhisperer]

Tough to tell from that pic. However, the black thing is probably a sponge. The other could be any number of things. Could be an oyster, clam, muscle, horse shoe snail, or where the shell just grew around an obstruction. It could even be something completely different. Without seeing any opening, or movement that you can describe, it’s anyones guess.

[Northern Reef]

It does open but not very much also it reacts to light and movement. It closed due to the flash

[RayWhisperer]

Yep. Oyster or some other bivalve.

[Northern Reef]

4 hours ago, RayWhisperer said:

Yep. Oyster or some other bivalve.

So it should be removed so they don't take over the tank?

[RayWhisperer]

I don’t see why. It poses no threat to anything. It’s just a filter feeder, no different than say a thorny oyster, or jewel box clam.

[Northern Reef]

Oysters reproduce a lot easier and faster that's all

[RayWhisperer]

Well, as far as I know, they still have a larval stage, so, the likelihood of one settling out in an actively filtered tank is almost nil. While I’m not very familiar with oyster reproductive biology, I believe they aren’t hermaphoditic. They may change sexes as they age, I’m not sure. However, even if they are hermaphoditic, they probably can’t fertilize their own eggs. So, with just one, in an actively filtered aquarium, I’d say your pretty safe.

[RayWhisperer]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster

this is the reproductive biology of the oysters we eat, not the same as what you have. However, most scallops, clams, and oysters have very similar reproductive strategies. With the oysters we eat, the first year they are male, the second year, on, they are female. They cannot fertilize themselves.