Do new clams change color after acclimation?

[Rython]

I know this is one of those questions that I can simply be patient and find out the answer to, but google and message boards like this one have ruined me. I have no stomach for curiosity anymore.

I purchased an ultra blue/turquoise maxima clam from Live Aquaria.

It's not from Divers' Den so I was taking it on faith that it would be some variation of color I would be happy with based on the photos I looked up online and the photo on the LA site.

After drip acclimating him I put him in the sand over a buried frag plug with the lights out. Lights are very high PAR LED. After 3 hours I turned the lights on very low with the intent of slowly creeping them up over the course of the next couple of days, and then moving him up the rocks over the course of the next couple of weeks.

Upon turning on the lights, his coloration is nothing like I expected. I don't see any turquoise. The mantle appears mostly brownish purple with a few dark blue spots near the edge. I know purple is within the wide variation in Maxima coloration, but I wouldn't expect a purple one to be sold as ultra blue/turquoise.

Admittedly it's nowhere near fully open, but it got me wondering. Do clams have a stress response similar to many fish that dramatically affects their coloration for a while after shipping? Could I be seeing excess zooxanthellae? What causes this? Should I expect dramatic color changes as it acclimates to the light or water parameters, is exposed to increasingly more light? as it ages?

I read through the stickies and poked through the posts, but most seem to discuss clams losing color over much longer periods of time, not necessarily the relationship between coloration and shipping/acclimation stress. I even found some posts on other websites that indicate the viewing angle can have a pretty big impact on the color you observe. And obviously light spectrum will play a part (I messed with that a little just to see, but brownish purple is largely brownish purple).

Any experience anyone wants to share would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chance

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yep. That change color. They also clench up the mantle and I’ll chanhe it too.

My squamosa changes color when I make it mad.

 

[Rython]

I didn't think about that. The color probably lightens up as the mantle stretches thinner, kind of like a deflated balloon vs inflated? Makes perfect sense.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Pretty cool.
Might also be a way to keep from getting too much Light too if they are in a few feet of water.

 

[Huskymaniac]

My clam has changed colors. Was more of a goldish color when little and turned more purplish as it get bigger

 

[Rython]

Wow that's a pretty huge change. Guess i'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

 

[ocboat]

In my experience there won't be a change from brown/purple to blue/turquoise. There may be a subtle change but nothing dramatic. Hopefully it just wasn't fully open and you weren't seeing its true colors.

 

[Shigshwa]

Try observing your clam from above. Blue clams in particular will look a duller blue from the glass, they seem to reflect their brilliant colors upward. The best results that I've ever seen from a blue clam were from light blue Squamosas, their blues translate really well at nearly all viewing angles.

As for color shift, I think that lighting spectrum plays a huge role in how they look to us. If you use more white lights, clams tend to look more detailed, but go heavy on the blues and the details seem to become bland.

Observe, a Maxima that I used to own as seen from from the glass (excuse the bryopsis, that has been long gone now):

And from above:

 

[Tahoe61]

Try observing your clam from above. Blue clams in particular will look a duller blue from the glass, they seem to reflect their brilliant colors upward. The best results that I've ever seen from a blue clam were from light blue Squamosas, their blues translate really well at nearly all viewing angles.

As for color shift, I think that lighting spectrum plays a huge role in how they look to us. If you use more white lights, clams tend to look more detailed, but go heavy on the blues and the details seem to become bland.

Observe, a Maxima that I used to own as seen from from the glass (excuse the bryopsis, that has been long gone now):

And from above:

This.

 

[b3ja]

I have my maxima changing colour depends on light colour spectrum..
Below is the same clam under different light spectrum
The first pic is under 12-14k spectrum keep it that way about 5 month ..
second pic under 20k ..
currently keep it under 20k spectrum.

 

[Rython]

Try observing your clam from above. Blue clams in particular will look a duller blue from the glass, they seem to reflect their brilliant colors upward. The best results that I've ever seen from a blue clam were from light blue Squamosas, their blues translate really well at nearly all viewing angles.

As for color shift, I think that lighting spectrum plays a huge role in how they look to us. If you use more white lights, clams tend to look more detailed, but go heavy on the blues and the details seem to become bland.

Observe, a Maxima that I used to own as seen from from the glass (excuse the bryopsis, that has been long gone now):

And from above:

Wow! I couldn't believe the difference in your photos Shigshwa. I checked first thing this morning and that is exactly the situation. It's a beautiful bright aqua blue from above! I can't wait to show my wife now. She was ribbing me last night for buying a turd colored clam. I sure wish I could see that top down color all the time.

Actually, I think I have a plan. If I understand the cause correctly, it's not refraction through the glass causing the change, but the viewing angle relative to the light source. Right now my lighting is a black box LED which are notorious for it's spotlight effect (bad spread). So it's getting basically all it's light from above and slightly behind relative to the front glass. If I increase the spread by adding lights towards the front of my tank (for example by flanking the LED fixture on the front and back with T5s), then when I put it on my rock (which moves it back), if it is ever so slightly tilted forward, maybe some of that brighter blue will be viewable from the front glass? It would be getting some light from in front of it, not exactly from where it will be viewed but certainly much closer than now.

When it moves up i'll also try B3ja's suggestion and shift the spectrum closer to 20k to see if that helps. I tried it earlier today and it just doesn't overcome the viewing angle issue.

 

[Shigshwa]

Wow! I couldn't believe the difference in your photos Shigshwa. I checked first thing this morning and that is exactly the situation. It's a beautiful bright aqua blue from above! I can't wait to show my wife now. She was ribbing me last night for buying a turd colored clam. I sure wish I could see that top down color all the time.

Actually, I think I have a plan. If I understand the cause correctly, it's not refraction through the glass causing the change, but the viewing angle relative to the light source. Right now my lighting is a black box LED which are notorious for it's spotlight effect (bad spread). So it's getting basically all it's light from above and slightly behind relative to the front glass. If I increase the spread by adding lights towards the front of my tank (for example by flanking the LED fixture on the front and back with T5s), then when I put it on my rock (which moves it back), if it is ever so slightly tilted forward, maybe some of that brighter blue will be viewable from the front glass? It would be getting some light from in front of it, not exactly from where it will be viewed but certainly much closer than now.

When it moves up i'll also try B3ja's suggestion and shift the spectrum closer to 20k to see if that helps. I tried it earlier today and it just doesn't overcome the viewing angle issue.

Try laying the clam with the byssal opening parallel to the sand, that may help. I find that my clams ideally want to be placed so that the mantle gets the most even exposure to the lights above though, sitting right on the umbo of the clam (the pointed tip of the clam's bottom).

 

[Geraud_NY]

Hello @Rython I am currently in the same situation (I actually wrote LA to ask them about it), and was wondering if your maxima eventually colored up to a more blue/turquoise "as advertised".

Thank you.