Harlequinmania

A new study by the University of California, Berkeley, Wildlife Conservation Society, and others uses a new scientific methodology for establishing marine protected areas in Madagascar that offers a "diversified portfolio" of management options - from strict no-take zones to areas that would allow fishing. (2012-02-27) View the full article

Researchers have discovered a turtle that lived near the end of the age of dinosaurs. Unlike other kinds of turtles, it seems that Polysternon did not survive the end of Cretaceous and went extinct with the dinosaurs. View the full article

Click through to see the images. What these groups are doing is deleting comments that respectfully disagree with them, and then pretending to be generous by replying…while at the same time blocking the people they say they are replying to. They are also assuming that everyone that disagrees with them disagrees with everything they have to say and that everyone disagrees about the same thing in the same way both of which are of course, not true. Because blocking people shuts down all real discussion, these misconceptions cannot be addressed or cleared up in an effort to find common ground and move everyone forward. It is very hard to take seriously or trust advocates that delete responses that they disagree with and block dissenting opinions - especially respectful reasonable responses that are discussing the issues raised in a public discussion. If a position is so fragile that opposition must be hidden and eliminated it seems that the position is weak enough to be ignored, that the advocate of that position is hiding something, or that the advocate is not interested in actual motion on the issue and instead is trying to change others opinions not with reason but with hyperbole, emotion and demagoguery. There is a lot to talk about, and the discussion is good. There is always room for reform and change and many see room and need for improvement in the aquarium fishery. Sadly, these anti aquarium trade groups don't seem to want to have discussion, they seem to want to control the discussion so they can feel like they are winning or even worse, give others in print media or in politics, the perception they are winning. I would suggest that the aquarium community not directly engage with groups that behave in such censorship because each time we engage we make them seem more relevant while the truth is they aren't…at least in social media. They have large followings in the real world, but in social media they don't have much going on and it seems better to keep it that why so I won't name or link their Facebook pages. If these groups were open to real discussion, I would advocate working with them in all media to find reasonable solutions to everyones issues regarding the aquarium trade. If you do decide to engage them directly, I urge you be incredibly respectful and careful that you don't give them any ammunition they can use out of context to support their agenda. I also suggest that you keep a copy of whatever you write along with a log of what you wrote and when they deleted it. I can imagine a time where that kind of information could go a long way in showing that the aquarium community has tried to engage in productive discussion, even though the anti aquarium advocates have not and has in fact purposefully stifled productive discussion. In the mean time, https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiBanFactCheck is doing a great job of countering the odd positions of the anti trade advocates and has gone out of their way not to exclude anyone or any opinion from the discussion (interestingly, the way Facbook works, people that the anti trade groups have blocked cannot even see what those anti trade people are saying anywhere on Facebook which makes some of the discussion on HawaiiBanFactCheck seem disjointed to the growing number of blocked participants). Instead of engaging the anti trade people directly, support HawaiiBanFactCheck with positive vibes and posts. Harnessing social media in a positive way can only lead to a better future than squelching discussion. I hope that this situation changes. I hope that honest discussion of the situation can be had because if people really are for the fishes and really want to save the sea, everyone has to work together and that can only truly start with honest discussion. View the full article

Click through to see the images. Olaf Urlik (33) and Norbert Jarzabek (32) were sentenced to 11 years in jail for attempting to smuggle an estimated £1.6m/$2.5m worth of Colombian cocaine into the UK. The cocaine was first dissolved in fluid then bagged. These bags were then placed inside larger bags containing live tropical fish. A shipment of 25 boxes of nearly 550 tropical fish arrived at Heathrow Airport on July 9, 2011. These boxes were labelled “Live Tropical Fish, Handle With Extreme Care,” but 10 boxes also contained 17kg (37lb) of dissolved cocaine. The shipment was left at the airport for 2 days before it was claimed by the two men. Immediately after, law enforcement arrested the two men at their Nottingham flat Only 34 fish survived and are currently being cared for by the London Zoo. According to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Urlik and Jarzabek left over 16,000 fish to die on previous trial runs. [via Dailymail.co.uk] View the full article

Click through to see the images. Olaf Urlik (33) and Norbert Jarzabek (32) were sentenced to 11 years in jail for attempting to smuggle an estimated £1.6m/$2.5m worth of Colombian cocaine into the UK. The cocaine was first dissolved in fluid then bagged. These bags were then placed inside larger bags containing live tropical fish. A shipment of 25 boxes of nearly 550 tropical fish arrived at Heathrow Airport on July 9, 2011. These boxes were labelled “Live Tropical Fish, Handle With Extreme Care,” but 10 boxes also contained 17kg (37lb) of dissolved cocaine. The shipment was left at the airport for 2 days before it was claimed by the two men. Immediately after, law enforcement arrested the two men at their Nottingham flat Only 34 fish survived and are currently being cared for by the London Zoo. According to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Urlik and Jarzabek left over 16,000 fish to die on trial runs without cocaine. [via Dailymail.co.uk] View the full article

Not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes it is just bacteria trying to get ahead in life. Many sea creatures glow with a biologically produced light. This phenomenon, known as bioluminescence, is observed, among others, in some marine bacteria which emit a steady light once they have reached a certain level of concentration (a phenomenon called "quorum sensing") on organic particles in ocean waters. View the full article

Not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes it is just bacteria trying to get ahead in life. Many sea creatures glow with a biologically produced light. This phenomenon, known as bioluminescence, is observed, among others, in some marine bacteria which emit a steady light once they have reached a certain level of concentration (a phenomenon called "quorum sensing") on organic particles in ocean waters. View the full article

Click through to see the images. Sea life finds shelter wherever it can, whether it be rocks, floating debris, or even chocolate chip starfish. This week, the underwater team of Pelagic Life takes us to sunny Acapulco and shares incredible footage of reef life out in the open sea beneath underwater gardens. Ecosystems are as diverse as the life within them. Perhaps images likes these will inspire some of us to establish new types of home aquarium exhibits and push the frontiers of aquaria. View the full article

It is well known that female sex hormones (estrogens) that end up in rivers and lakes, primarily via spillage from sewers and livestock farming, pose a threat to the environment. Some environmental toxins can also have the same impact as estrogens. One example of such substances are degradation products (metabolites) from the pollutant PCB. View the full article

Click through to see the images. The SVII camera used for the survey. The primary goal of the Catlin Seaview Survey is to scientifically survey the life and ongoing health of the Great Barrier Reef. It will capture images of the Reef's day-to-day activities in incredible detail from 0-100 meters using the latest in camera and underwater photography technology. For the project, the group will be using a motorized 360-degree panoramic camera called the SVII which takes geo-located photos every 4-6 seconds as a diver steers it from behind (photo at right). The camera has been named "Sylvia" after the American oceanographer Sylvia Earle. The motorized underwater camera will travel at speeds up to 2.5 mph. The images taken from this survey will be stitched together and will allow both scientists and the public to virtually dive into the GBR from any internet connected device. Pick a location and dive while at home, work, or on your daily commute! Google is working with the group and is planning to incorporate the images from this survey into its product Panoramio, which allows people to explore places through geo-tagged photography. At some future date the 50,000 images generated from this survey might be accessible through Google Maps and Google Earth. The survey will launch this September and will be comprised of a shallow reef, deep reef, and megafauna survey which when taken as a whole will give a very good baseline of where the GBR is health-wise. In more detail taken from the project page: 1) The shallow reef survey will involve photographing the reef in full 360 degree panoramic vision on an unprecedented scale using specially developed cameras. These images will be analysed automatically using image recognition software creating an incredibly rich broad scale baseline for scientific analysis from locations along the entire length of the 2300km reef. The visual baseline will be made freely available through Google, for scientists all around the world to study. 2) The deep reef survey looks into the effects of climate change on one of the least known ecosystems on the planet – the deep-water reefs or mesophotic coral ecosystems (between 30-100m). It will provide a comprehensive study of the health composition and biodiversity of the deepwater reefs on the Great Barrier Reef as well as experimentally assess their susceptibility to increased temperature and climate change. 3) The third component of the survey is the mega fauna survey. This is led by Emmy award winning cinematographer and shark researcher Richard Fitzpatrick. We’re going to be tagging and tracking manta rays, turtles and tiger sharks using satellite tags and tracking their movements live in relation to oceanographic data. This is a really important study as there are almost no comprehensive studies that have examined how large animals are changing their distributions in response to rapidly warming seas. If you wish to follow this project, you can connect with them on Facebook by liking their page. There is also a dedicated YouTube channel that you can subscribe to as well. (via The University of Queensland) View the full article

Click through to see the images. Two to Tango Just because it's Friday doesn't mean you can't learn something. Read Richard Ross' article about the Flamboyant Cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi). Flamboyants live for only about a year, but what a year they live ... a super bright but short-lived flame! Rich Ross describes these marvelous creatures as "the artists of the sea." Now watch them in action; Quite apropo, don't you think? View the full article

Click through to see the images. Two to Tango Just because it's Friday doesn't mean you can't learn something. Read Richard Ross' article about the Flamboyant Cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi). Flamboyants live for only about a year, but what a year they live ... a super bright but short-lived flame! Rich Ross describes these marvelous creatures as "the artists of the sea." Now watch them in action; Quite apropo, don't you think? View the full article

Click through to see the images. The Shepherd's Beaked Whale, Tasmacetus shepherdi, is a very secretive whale with only four confirmed at-sea sightings as of 2006. They can reach 20 feet in length and have a dolphin-like beak, with adult males having a set of tusks at the end of their lower jaw. "I knew from a distance that it was something unusual, something rare" stated Natalie Schmitt, whale scientist. "To encounter this group was amazing but the fact that they stayed at the surface for so long so that we could get many minutes of footage was unique. ... I've never seen any other footage of Sheperd's beaked whale" mentioned Dr. Michael Double during his interview with ABC News (below). (via ABC News) View the full article

Click through to see the images. The Shepherd's Beaked Whale, Tasmacetus shepherdi, is a very secretive whale with only four confirmed at-sea sightings as of 2006. They can reach 20 feet in length and have a dolphin-like beak, with adult males having a set of tusks at the end of their lower jaw. "I knew from a distance that it was something unusual, something rare" stated Natalie Schmitt, whale scientist. "To encounter this group was amazing but the fact that they stayed at the surface for so long so that we could get many minutes of footage was unique. ... I've never seen any other footage of Sheperd's beaked whale" mentioned Dr. Michael Double during his interview with ABC News (below). (via ABC News) View the full article

Sharks are among the most threatened of marine species worldwide due to unsustainable overfishing. They are primarily killed for their fins to fuel the growing demand for shark fin soup, which is an Asia delicacy. A new study has discovered high concentrations of BMAA in shark fins, a neurotoxin linked to neurodegenerative diseases in humans including Alzheimer?s and Lou Gehrig Disease (ALS). The study suggests that consumption of shark fin soup and cartilage pills may pose a significant health risk for degenerative brain diseases. View the full article

When one fish gets injured, the rest of the school takes off in fear, tipped off by a mysterious substance known as "Schreckstoff" (meaning "scary stuff" in German). Now, researchers have figured out what that scary stuff is really made of. View the full article

Click through to see the images. KENT Marine Reef Carbon Product Advisory (2/22/12) There is a quality concern with KENT Marine Reef Carbon manufactured between December 5th of 2011 and February 8th of 2012. The concern is that the batch of carbon contained unusually high levels of heavy metals which have an adverse effect on stony corals and clams in marine settings. KENT Marine Reef Carbon is a virgin coal based carbon that is mined giving it greater adsorption properties. Unfortunately during this mining process, small layers containing heavy metals like copper were introduced into the carbon. This contamination of heavy metals would likely go undetected in freshwater environments and would not affect livestock. However in marine (salt water) aquariums, the effects can be seen in as quickly as a couple of hours to stony corals and clams. Fish and higher invertebrates such as shrimp do not seem to be affected. After removal of the contaminated carbon and dilution by a water change or use of other filtration means, most corals have been able to recover in 2-3 weeks from the exposure. This carbon is also mainly used for commercial potable and wastewater treatment such as municipal water supplies. These are single pass systems where the water will only pass through the carbon bed once and any residual leaching of metal into the water will be minimal. This is also why carbon is not typically tested for heavy metals; until now. When carbon is used in aquarium settings, the water passes through the carbon bed multiple times increasing the soluble metal in that enclosed environment. If you have purchased KENT Marine Reef Carbon in the last three months, please refer to the below table to identify the product size you may have purchased and the expiration dates affected. 00027 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 1lb (1qt) EX20DEC14 EX21DEC14 EX22DEC14 EX25JAN15 00031 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 15lbs (5gal) EX05JAN15 EX17JAN15 EX18JAN15 00028 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 1.9lb (2qt) EX05DEC14 EX08DEC14 EX13DEC14 00032 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 25lbs EX21DEC14 00029 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 4.1lbs (1gal) EX18JAN15 00681 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 44lbs EX02FEB15 EX08FEB15 00030 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 7lbs (2gal) EX13DEC14 EX14DEC14 EX03FEB15 These expiration dates can be found imprinted on the product label or stamped on the product bottom. If you have product with an above expiration date, please discontinue use and perform a standard water change. Take the remaining product back to the retailer where it was purchased for a refund or exchange or call a Central Aquatics customer service representative at 1-888-255-4527. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused as we want to assure you that we intend to deliver the highest quality products possible. With this development, the quality of KENT Reef Carbon will be produced under new testing protocols. Again we sincerely apologize for having to bring this quality concern to your attention. If you have any questions about this advisory or any other KENT Marine product, please contact a Central Aquatics customer service representative at 1-888-255-4527. Best regards, Scott Rabe Central Aquatics Brand Manager Food & Water Care View the full article

Researchers have uncovered the specific mechanism that triggers phytoplankton to release their powerful toxins into the environment. View the full article

Click through to see the images. Getting family and friends scuba-certified and taking them out on a grand diving expedition would make for a truly memorable educational adventure, but who has the time or money? The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea may be the next best thing. This 40 minute IMAX 3D underwater film was shot by cinematographer D.J. Roller using the latest 3D equipment inspired by James Cameron's 3D Titanic documentary, Ghost of the Abyss (whom Roller worked alongside for this production). We aren't talking about a digitally manipulated, post-process 3D movie (which most 3D movies are) but rather a film shot in true 3D for IMAX. The cinematography is guaranteed to make a lasting impression on young and old alike. Despite the ominous title, The Last Reef 3D shares an inspirational message intended to cultivate audiences' appreciation for sea life by paralleling "foreign" underwater ecosystems to modern cities. The movie instills a sense of urgency to protect coral reefs, but the documentary is careful to deliver their message in a positive, motivational tone. The movie opens with footage of a nuclear blast at Marshall Islands' Bikini Atoll (site of US' nuclear weapons testing in the 1940 and 50s) followed by scenes of the reefs of Marshall Islands today. The message (which carries through the film): Coral reefs are beautiful, resilient, and can thrive ... "if we let them," as narrated by Jamie Lee. Movie distributor Giant Screen Films introduces The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea: From the Academy-Award nominated creators of the Broadway show STOMP and the award-winning film Wild Ocean, The Last Reef is an uplifting, inspirational large-format and 3D cinema experience capturing one of nature's more vibrant and diverse wonderlands. Exotic coral reefs, vibrant sea walls in the sub-arctic pulsating with anemones and crustaceans: these biodiversity hot spots are as vital to our lives as the rainforests. Shot on location in Palau, Vancouver Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, and The Bahamas using groundbreaking 3D cinematography, The Last Reef takes us on a global journey to explore the connection of our cities on land with the ocean's complex, parallel world of the coral reefs beneath the sea. Here is the official HD trailer of The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea. Imagine these footage but on a giant IMAX screen in true 3D. Wow! " height="408" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="680"> "> "> As of February 3, 2012, The Last Reef 3D is actually already in theaters but with extremely limited engagements throughout the United Stats thus far. Advanced Aquarist hopes to see this film on more screens in the coming months. Contact your local aquariums, zoos, and scientific institutions (e.g. Smithsonian) with IMAX theaters. For those in Tennessee, The Last Reef 3D will open at the Tennessee Aquarium on March 2. View the full article

Click through to see the images. Getting family and friends scuba-certified and taking them out on a grand diving expedition would make for a truly memorable educational adventure, but who has the time or money? The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea may be the next best thing. This 40 minute IMAX 3D underwater film was shot by cinematographer D.J. Roller using the latest 3D equipment inspired by James Cameron's 3D Titanic documentary, Ghost of the Abyss (whom Roller worked alongside for this production). We aren't talking about a digitally manipulated, post-process 3D movie (which most 3D movies are) but rather a film shot in true 3D for IMAX. The cinematography is guaranteed to make a lasting impression on young and old alike. Despite the ominous title, The Last Reef 3D shares an inspirational message intended to cultivate audiences' appreciation for sea life by paralleling "foreign" underwater ecosystems to modern cities. The movie instills a sense of urgency to protect coral reefs, but the documentary is careful to deliver their message in a positive, motivational tone. The movie opens with footage of a nuclear blast at Marshall Islands' Bikini Atoll (site of US' nuclear weapons testing in the 1940 and 50s) followed by scenes of the reefs of Marshall Islands today. The message (which carries through the film): Coral reefs are beautiful, resilient, and can thrive ... "if we let them," as narrated by Jamie Lee. Movie distributor Giant Screen Films introduces The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea: From the Academy-Award nominated creators of the Broadway show STOMP and the award-winning film Wild Ocean, The Last Reef is an uplifting, inspirational large-format and 3D cinema experience capturing one of nature's more vibrant and diverse wonderlands. Exotic coral reefs, vibrant sea walls in the sub-arctic pulsating with anemones and crustaceans: these biodiversity hot spots are as vital to our lives as the rainforests. Shot on location in Palau, Vancouver Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, and The Bahamas using groundbreaking 3D cinematography, The Last Reef takes us on a global journey to explore the connection of our cities on land with the ocean's complex, parallel world of the coral reefs beneath the sea. Here is the official HD trailer of The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea. Imagine these footage but on a giant IMAX screen in true 3D. Wow! " height="408" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="680"> "> "> As of February 3, 2012, The Last Reef 3D is actually already in theaters but with extremely limited engagements throughout the United Stats thus far. Advanced Aquarist hopes to see this film on more screens in the coming months. Contact your local aquariums, zoos, and scientific institutions (e.g. Smithsonian) with IMAX theaters. For those in Tennessee, The Last Reef 3D will open at the Tennessee Aquarium on March 2. View the full article

Despite brutal cold and lingering darkness, life in the frigid waters off Alaska does not grind to a halt in the winter as scientists previously suspected. Microscopic creatures at the base of the Arctic food chain are not dormant as expected, according to new findings. View the full article

Despite brutal cold and lingering darkness, life in the frigid waters off Alaska does not grind to a halt in the winter as scientists previously suspected. Microscopic creatures at the base of the Arctic food chain are not dormant as expected, according to new findings. View the full article

Scientists have examined the feeding habits of human hunter-gatherers in the food webs on which they depended. View the full article

Click through to see the images. There are several species of clam belonging to the family Tridacnidae, which are best known as the tridacnids or giant clams. Of these, one of the most attractive species is Tridacna maxima, which is also one of the most commonly offered species available to hobbyists. I say most attractive because they can come in a wide range of colors, which can be arranged in a variety of unusual patterns, with many specimens being striped, sprinkled, spotted, blotched, marbled, etc. The colors themselves also range from black and white, with essentially everything else in between being seen on some specimen or another. In fact, I'd say it's harder to find a maxima that's unattractive than to find one that is. Basic Information To get started, maxima is the most widely distributed species of the tridacnids. They're found in the Red Sea and from East Africa all the way across the Indo-Pacific to Polynesia. They also live as far north as southern Japan, and as far south as the Great Barrier Reef (Rosewater 1965). Maximas can be found in high numbers around many reef areas where waters are relatively shallow and clear, with the majority living at depths less than about 25 feet. Some can be found living as deep as about 50 feet, but their abundance drops off dramatically below about 25 feet, with these deeper-living clams occurring mostly as solitary individuals (Jaubert 1977). Maxima range Regardless of their depth of occurrence, essentially all of them are found living on limestone substrates, on top of living corals, or on coral rubble. Supposedly they're occasionally found on sandy bottoms (Pasaribu 1988), but after doing a lot of diving around Japan and Indonesia I have yet to see this. Regardless, on hard bottoms maximas can chemically bore a shallow indentation into the substrate that the bottom of their shells fits into, and they strongly affix themselves in place using a tough structure called a byssus. So, they typically stay in one spot for life, with the bottom third or half of the shell kept out of sight in their burrow. Conversely, on coral rubble bottoms they simply bury themselves amongst the coral chunks and attach to something solid with their byssus if they can. Again, usually only part of the shell rises above the substrate. The odd thing is that they won't do this in aquariums, though. It seems that if they don't start making a burrow while they're relatively tiny, they won't do it at all. So, don't expect a specimen to dig into your live rock. Regardless, they almost always attach to the substrate using their byssus anyway. Aside from that, the most notable thing to point out here is that, like all the other members of the family, maximas harbor large populations of zooxanthellae. These single-celled photosynthetic algae live in the tissues of a host clam primarily within a specialized system of tubes that permeate the fleshy, colorful, mantle tissue that extends from the top of the shell, and when given enough light, they can make far more food than they need for themselves. The extra food (in the form of carbon and energy-packed glucose) is then given to the clam host, which is the same thing that occurs within most reef-dwelling corals. Under optimal conditions, these zooxanthellae are constantly multiplying within a tridacnid, and some of these live algal cells can be digested by specialized amoeboid cells within the host, too. So, a host clam can rely on its zooxanthellae for more than just sugar, and is considered to be a "farmer" to some degree since it can consume these surplus zooxanthellae grown inside its body. In addition, all tridacnids can also absorb a variety of nutrients directly from seawater. Their fleshy mantle is covered by a specialized tissue that can very effectively take in dissolved nutrients like ammonia, nitrate, and phosphates. So, here they have a third means of nutrient acquisition, with one more to go. The last way they cover their nutritional needs is through filter-feeding. All tridacnids can eat fine particulate matter strained from surrounding waters by their specialized gills, which not only work to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen, but can also act as sieves that can collect such particles. A tridacnid, like most other clams, pumps water into its body chamber, where it flows over the finely-branched gills and then flows out the other end of the body chamber, minus some particulates. These collected bits are can include phytoplankton, zooplankton, and detritus, meaning they can make use of a broad range of things. Identification When it comes to identification, once you know what to look for maxima is usually pretty easy to distinguish from all other tridacnids with the exception of T. crocea. So, I'll go over the basic features used to ID them, and then give you some tips on how to differentiate them from croceas, too. When it comes to shells, they're almost always grayish-white when clean. However, one of the interesting things about the shells of this species is that sometimes they may be tinted with light yellow or pinkish-orange. Rarely, the shell may also be completely yellow. It's almost always strongly elongated in form, being much longer than it is tall, and some maximas are very thin from side to side while others are quite fat. Deformed shells are not particularly uncommon either, as maximas sometimes live in very crowded groups and/or partially burrowed into coral rock preventing them from producing a normally-shaped shell. Regardless, at its top each half of the shell typically has four or five smoothly-curved and inter-digitating projections that are symmetrical to those on the other, allowing the them to close together tightly. However, there are occasional individuals that have more elongated and even pointed tooth-like projections that don't inter-digitate as smoothly with those on the opposite side. Some species of tridacnids have petal or shelf-like structures on their shells, which are called scutes, and maxima is one of them. In fact, their shells are typically covered by numerous tightly-spaced but thin scutes, which run in rows from the bottom to the top of the shell. However, when maximas partially burrow into the substrate, many of these scutes are either not formed in the first place, or are broken/eroded away in the process. So, maxima shells oftentimes have no scutes on the bottom portion, while numerous scutes are still present on the rest. Still, there are occasional individuals that have none at all for some reason, while aquacultured specimens that are not permitted to burrow typically retain most or all of their scutes. Also note that it's possible for a maxima's shell to reach almost 16 inches in length, but that's the largest ever reported (Kinch 2002). Thus, you shouldn't expect any given specimen you purchase to get so big. In fact, McMichael (1974) did a survey of several hundred maximas in the wild and reported that only 3% were larger than 9 inches and the largest specimen found in the whole survey was only 9.8 inches. So, that record holding 16-inch specimen was quite an anomaly. When it comes to the soft parts, maximas typically extend their zooxanthellae-packed mantle tissue well beyond the upper edges of the shell. In fact, it's typically extended to the point that it completely obscures the shell from view when looking down on one. The mantle can also come in such a wide range of colors and patterns that there really is no standard color, although blue is the most common. As noted, the patterns covering it may also be striped, sprinkled, spotted, blotched, marbled, etc. and quite fancy, which is why various specimens are often called things like teardrop maximas, striped maximas, super maximas, or even ultra maximas, etc. Still, the only patterns that are relatively consistent in how they look are that of the teardrop and striped varieties. Teardrop maximas may vary significantly in color, but they tend to have the same sort of pattern covering their mantle, being covered in teardrop-shaped splotches, while striped maximas tend to have a dark, solid background color with thin radiating stripes of blue, yellow, or white. Other than that, the mantle has rows of simple, closely-spaced, dark eyes near the outer edge and sometimes has numerous eye-tipped tubercles/protrusions on its upper surface, too. The large mouth-like opening in it (called the inhalent siphon) is also ringed with numerous simple, small tentacles that usually lack anything more than very fine branches. The dark spots on these maxima's mantles are simple eyes. A typical teardrop maxima. A typical striped maxima. Now, as I said above, maximas are indeed easily confused with croceas because both species have relatively large and often brightly-colored mantles with small tentacles around their inhalent siphons. The vast majority of maximas has elongated shells with lots of scutes, while almost all croceas have shorter, taller shells that lack scutes or only have a few small ones. But, there are exceptions, which lead to this confusion. A typical crocea's shell lacks scutes and is far less elongated than the shell of a typical maxima, but there are individuals of each species that are in between. Croceas can be rather elongated at times, and may actually have a lot of scutes, while some maximas may have rather short shells and lack scutes. So, I'll give you some additional pointers for trying to figure out which is which in case it isn't clear who is who. Some maximas are not elongated (L), while some croceas are ®. This crocea even has a few rudimentary scutes, which are often larger and more numerous on aquacultured specimens. First, a maxima's shell usually has larger, much more pronounced waves or folds than that of a crocea, as crocea's shells are typically relatively smooth. A maxima's shell sometimes has very sharply-pointed, almost triangular projections at the shell's upper edge, but crocea's are always more rounded and never sharp. Maximas can reach significantly larger sizes than croceas, as the record-holding crocea was only 6 inches long. So, anything larger than about 5 inches in length is almost certainly a maxima. There is no such thing as a teardrop crocea or a striped crocea. Croceas may have some stripes on them at times, but I've never seen one that had a solid background color with thin radiating stripes on top, or the characteristic droplets of a teardrop. And lastly, the tentacles around the inhalent siphon of a maxima are typically simple and un-branched, while those of a crocea are usually finely branched at their tips. The tentacles surrounding maxima's inhalent siphon are typically simpler than those of crocea. So, there is no straightforward single way to always ID both species correctly, but by looking at a combination of these features you can usually figure out just about any of them. I will admit though, over the years I've come across a handful of specimens that have been quite difficult to differentiate. At such times most folks just throw up their hands and declare that a hard-to-ID specimen in a hybrid between the two species, but after doing a lot of searching, reading, and asking clam farmers questions I'm still far from convinced that these two species can/do hybridize. That's a topic for another day, though. Aquarium Care When it comes to caring for maximas, water quality requirements are typical for reef aquariums in general. Basically, if you're successfully keeping corals alive and well, then your water quality is good enough for a maxima. On the other hand, if you're having problems maintaining excellent water quality - don't fool with any species of tridacnid. When it comes to water motion, tridacnids live in reef and near-reef environments, and are regularly exposed to strong currents and wave activity. This is especially so for maximas, which often live right at the crest of a reef where waves break hardest. Thus, they are no strangers to strong, surging and turbulent water motion. However, in aquariums the flow tends to be quite linear and constant, as a pump outlet might blast water in one particular spot day and night at about the same volume per minute, and rarely creates any real surge or turbulence. So, you need to think about this when it comes to the placement of a maxima (or any other tridacnid) in an aquarium. It's okay to expose maximas to a low velocity surge, or to turbulent flow, but putting them in a position where a pump constantly hits them with a strong, non-stop linear current is not recommended. Basically, any sort of current that causes the mantle to fold upwards too much, or over onto itself all the time is bad, as is any current that makes a specimen chronically retract its mantle. Thus, you can put one anywhere you like with respect to current, as long as it doesn't bring on either of these reactions. I'll also add that while they're almost always found on hard substrates and rubble in the wild, placing them on such is highly recommended, but is not required. Placing a specimen on sand/gravel won't kill them, but they often move around a lot, trying to find something to attach their byssus to. Next is lighting, which not surprisingly is of critical importance. Maximas live at relatively shallow depths where they receive relatively intense light, so fluorescent lighting will only suffice in shallow tanks, or if a specimen is placed on the rockwork near the water's surface in a deeper tank. I would try fitting as many bulbs into the canopy/fixture as possible at that, and mount the bulbs close to the water, and then place any specimens within a foot of the surface, preferably less. Some specimens may be able to get by at times with less light, or further down in deeper tanks, but I implore you to not take chances. Metal halide or comparable L.E.D. lighting is your best option. I know that some people have gotten by with less, but when it comes down to it insufficient lighting is certainly one of the most common causes of losses. The problem is that corals are very simple organisms that have no real "guts" to speak of, while tridacnids have all the organs you'd expect to find in a higher animal. They've got stomachs, kidneys, gonads, gills, and even a heart. Thus, they are far more complex than you might think, and they use a lot of calories to keep everything running. So, it's a mistake to think that just because your lighting is bright enough to keep corals healthy and growing that they're necessarily bright enough to keep a maxima alive long-term. To make matters worse, it can take a tridacnid months to slowly starve to the point of no return. So, everything can look fine for weeks on end, then a specimen may seem to just up and die for no apparent reason when it was really starving the whole time. Every maxima is genetically different at that, and long-term experience has proven that some individuals can get by with less while others need much more, even though they may be the same species and even the same size and color. To add, you cannot give a tridacnid too much light as long as a specimen is given time to adapt to intense lighting, so it's better to err on the bright side than the dim side. For more on this, refer to my article On Lighting for Tridacnid Clams in the March 2011 issue, and for even more than that see my book Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium. You can't overdo it when it comes to lighting, as many maximas are found in the intertidal zone where they're exposed to tropical sunlight that's as bright as it gets. Lastly, there's the question of whether or not you need to feed a maxima in an aquarium. As covered, all tridacnids are filter-feeders, yet their zooxanthellae can cover a great deal of their nutritional needs, and they're able to absorb pretty much everything else they need directly from seawater. In fact, if provided with enough light, maximas of any size have no need to filter feed and can thrive in particulate-free water as long as there are enough dissolved nutrients present. Controlled experiments by Fitt & Trench (1981) proved that tridacnids can do without, and I kept them for years before anyone was talking about adding phytoplankton to aquaria, much less sold any in a bottle. You can get all the details in my article Tridacnid Clams (Usually) Don't Need to Be Fed in Aquaria in the July 2010 issue, but I'll give you some basic info on the subject anyway. When you feed your fishes some amount of the food won't get eaten and becomes detrital particles, which maximas can filter out. Any uneaten food also releases nutrients into the water as it decomposes. Likewise, the food that is eaten by the fishes ends up becoming solid wastes that can also become detritus. However, even more importantly, fishes excrete dissolved substances that can be absorbed by a clam, too. For example, fishes give off dissolved ammonia as a waste product, but tridacnids can absorb it and use it as a source of nitrogen. Thus, when you feed your fishes, you're feeding your tridacnid(s), too. So, the real question is whether or not there are enough fishes in your aquarium to support one or more tridacnids. While it's unlikely to happen, I suppose it is possible to have too low a fish load (or too high a tridacnid load depending on how you look at it) in an aquarium, which would mean that the amount of fish waste being produced would not be enough to support the needs of the clam(s). So, my advice is to refrain from taking any chances and use a quality phytoplankton product if you have any doubts. I have to say though, I imagine that very, very few hobbyists have problems due to nutrient levels that are too low since for most of us the fight is to prevent them from getting to high. Anyway, I need to wrap things up, and unfortunately I'll going to end on a bad note. As gorgeous as they may be, most all experienced aquarists agree that maxima is the least hardy of the tridacnids. I've seen and heard of more losses of this single species than all the rest by far, and I think it's usually due to insufficient lighting. They are especially dependent on excellent water quality and intense lighting. So, if you don't have both, don't buy one of these. I'll also add that despite their attractiveness, availability, and relatively low price, really small specimens are even more likely to pass away. In fact, I experienced so many losses of small maximas back in my selling days that I outright refused to order/sell them after a while, and I've heard the same from many other vendors, too. They didn't tolerate shipping and acclimation to aquarium life very well at all, and it was common for more to die in the first couple of weeks than to live. Stick with larger specimens, as in at least few inches long, and you'll have much better odds of success. References Fitt, W.K. and R.K. Trench. 1981. Spawning, development, and acquisition of zooxanthellae by Tridacna squamosa (Mollusca, Bivalvia). Biological Bulletin 161:213-235. Jaubert, J. 1977. Light, metabolism, and the distribution of Tridacna maxima in a South Pacific atoll: Takapoto (French Polynesia). Proceedings of the 3rd International Coral Reef Symposium 1:489-494. Kinch, J. 2002. Giant clams: their status and trade in Milne Bay Province, Papau New Guinea. TRAFFIC Bulletin 19(2):1-9. McMichael, D.F. 1974. Growth rate, population size and mantle coloration of the small giant clam Tridacna maxima (Roding), at One Tree Island, Capricorn Group, Queensland. Proceedings of the Second International Coral Reef Symposium 1:241-254. Pasaribu, B.P. 1988. Status of giant clams in Indonesia. In: Copeland, J.W. and J.S. Lucas (eds.) Giant Clams in Asia and the Pacific. ACIAR Monograph Number 9, Canberra. 274pp. Rosewater, J. 1965. The family Tridacnidae in the Indo-Pacific. Indo-Pacific Mollusca 1:347-396. View the full article