New maxima clam. About 2.5 inches.
Right now it is on the clam bed which is large particle sand. the tank is about 2 feet high wit aqua illumination lights Do they need to be on rock?
Should it be moved higher up?
Could it be placed a few inches from a hammer coral?
Thanks
Then definitely keep it very well lit! I’ve gone diving in Thailand and the Red Sea where you see maximas naturally, the ones in 10 ft of water and above are very blue whereas the ones deeper than that are mostly brown. Once a clam is brown, i don’t think it can revert back to blue so keep it lit!! Keep it away from anything potentially harmful (like stinging euphyllia and anemones) and make sure it’s got a nice place to wedge it’s foot. I saw some nice clam cradles on algae barn the other day, those are perfect if you’d like to keep it on the sand bed
Maxima are light hogs and can do well and looks their best with a lot of light. It is unlikely that a usual Reef Tank can provide too much light for a Maxima. Of course they need to adapt to the new light level if it is a great increase from before.
Colors from clams come from 2 general group. The golden brown color in the tissue are from the zooxanthellae, unless the clam completely bleached, then there is no color, just milky whitist tissue in bleached clams. Normally, the color is lighter in very high light to much darker gold brown in low light. This is because the density of the Zooxanthellae is lower in very bright light and higher in low light. When light is too low, then the zooxanthellae cannot live, then the clam bleached.
The other source of color om the clam mantles are the pigments which result in the pattern and other colors of the clams. It is though that these pigments are use by the clam to protect the zooxanthellae from excessive light. These pattern and colors are genetic base, and does not change. Blue clam stays blue and brown clam stays brown. These change will lighten when the clam is in poor health, also with not enough light, these color will fade, only to return when the clam return to optimal health and with good light. IMO, the color of the Maxima does not dictate how much light they should get. Rather, it is the zooxanthellae population of the clam is what determine the light requirement. The thing is that each clam have a numbers of different species and strains of zooxanthellae. Which population dominate depends of the amount of light. That is why clams can adapt from lower to higher amount of light and continue to grow well. Their zooxanthellae population just change.
Here is a picture of my Maxima (and three Crocea). Regarding the Blue Maxima, the Blue and White coloration of the Maxima are genetic base, while the brown coloration in between is non genetic base, but have to do with the zooxanthellae population. The black or dark brown spots on the edge of the mantle is the "eye spots" which is a feature that can be use to ID Maxima.
