Bivalve ID.

[NepTuNe-UsD]

Does anyone know of any bivalve species that are extremely mobile? And when I say mobile I dont mean "fluttering" through the water, I mean like a sort of upside down "walk". Right now as I was looking into my tank I noticed a peculiar white object climbing up a pretty steep incline of live rock. So I grabbed a flashlight to check it out and to my surprise it was a super tiny white clam or mussel or oyster of some sort dragging itself up the rock face with its base pointed upward. It doesnt seem to have a mantle of any sort, but then again it just might be to small to see. I am positive it is a bivalve however. Any Suggestions? ???

[NepTuNe-UsD]

Alright well I found a site that says that a lot of clams are good crawlers, and are constantly moving about. I guess I was thinking only in terms of the tridacna species that dont use this type of locomotion. Has anyone ever had this type of crawling clam in their tanks?

[Goofnut]

Yep... I have a small (about .5") off-white bi-valve in my tank that uses his foot to pull himself up the rock. Scared me when I first saw it, as it was in hiding for the first month that I had the tank and then it just popped up. I got a closer look and calmed down when I realized what it was.

 

I feed DTs to my flame scallop (=clam), so I figure he should get some nutrition from that. I'm about to get rid of the flame, however, as he's just too big and destructive. I've had him for over a month and he's very healthy, but he just moves around too much and is breaking pieces off the LR and landing on top of stuff all the time Plus, his pseudo-feces is kind of annoying. He DOES, however, stir up detritus in the tank -which is subsequently removed by my sponge prefilter on the PH. That's nice, but I don't think it counteracts the toll he's taken on the rock. Oh well! Anyone in D/FW have a larger tank and want a Flame Scallop? I'll trade you two cups of sand for him! :-)

[Crakeur]

Clams can move baby!