Tip of the Day – 7/16/2013

Bivalve creatures are quite abundant in the aquarium hobby. Tridacnid clams are the most popular in the bunch, as they are quite beautiful, easy to care for, and add colors that corals just can’t offer. Scallops are also big time crowd pleasers, especially those that are electric flame colored and pulse electricity across their soft tissues. Even those camouflaged hitch hiking clams find favor amongst hobbyists just because they make the rock come to life. Despite their similarities, however, they all have slightly differing morphology, which leads to different requirements in captivity. Tridacnid clams, for example, don’t require much in terms of food, as they utilize photosynthetic bacteria that are fueled by sunlight. The scallops and rock clams do not share that quality, and they require regular feedings of planktonic food items. Fortunately, that’s where most of the major differences end, which makes it easy to house multiple different bivalves in the same system.