Can clams regain their mantle color?

Frogspon · Mar 29, 2021

There's a 4 maxima I'm looking at in an LFS that is a great teal blue with brown patterning

However, he has a fw areas that are brown because they lost their color and are a little translucent.

Otherwise in all other major aspects he looks healthy. Is he worth a shot or no?

Butcher333 · Mar 29, 2021

I had a maxima that was translucent that croaked. I’ve been seeing a lot of clams lately with the middle portion of their mantles translucent. Weird.

OrionN · Mar 30, 2021

Mantle that are shaded will loose color but these area will recover in no time once provide with bright lighting. I would look at the clam as a whole. Make sure that he is growing and fully extended mantle. If this is the case, I would not hesitant to buy him because some area on the mantle was shaded and lost color.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Mar 30, 2021

maxima's are easily available in this hobby, and they are also very expensive. I dont know about you guys but up here in Canada you can't get a clam for less than $200. Based on the price and the availability of maxima's, I would skip it and find a healthy one, just my opinion

Shirak · Mar 30, 2021

Frogspon said:
There's a 4 maxima I'm looking at in an LFS that is a great teal blue with brown patterning

However, he has a fw areas that are brown because they lost their color and are a little translucent.

Otherwise in all other major aspects he looks healthy. Is he worth a shot or no?

I would be more concerned with full extension, reaction to movement overhead and most importantly new shell along the outer edge all the way around.

Butcher333 · Mar 30, 2021

Mine took foot to a rock. Showed good response to shadows. Received 300par of Radium metal halide. After a long wait. It croaked. The translucent portion mid mantle never recovered. Just my .02.

OrionN · Mar 30, 2021

My clams get 550 PAR of 5500-6000K light and they growing like on steroid. Why do people give clams, especially Maxima and Crocea such blue light? They live right on the surface which is 5500K light which is the Sun spectrum.

ocboat · Mar 30, 2021

OrionN said:
My clams get 550 PAR of 5500-6000K light and they growing like on steroid. Why do people give clams, especially Maxima and Crocea such blue light? They live right on the surface which is 5500K light which is the Sun spectrum.

Because most people keep them in a reef tank with other corals and prefer the bluer look for the corals. I'm not saying it's a good thing but that is the reason I keep mine under bluer light. I do not like the color of my SPS under whiter/yellow light so It's a balancing act. Your clams look spectacular by the way.