[samvanrl]

One of my 3 clams has a hole in the bysuss. As in the picture, you can see through the intake siphon hole. Is it normal or bad?

samvan

[optical]

thats its mouth

[samvanrl]

Are we talking the same thing? I think the mouth is the intake siphon hole at the mantles. The hole I am asking is at the bottom where the bysuss is

samvan

[BubbaWPB]

I'm not an expert on clam anatomy, but I'm pretty sure that the byssal organ was what the clam used to attach itself to the substrate; you'd have to look at the underside of the clam to see it. What your clam has is referred to as "gaping". This article talks about gaping and what can cause it.

[samvanrl]

Gaping? I don't think so

[BubbaWPB]

Here is a picture of gaping from Clamsdirect.com.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by samvanrl

Are we talking the same thing? I think the mouth is the intake siphon hole at the mantles. The hole I am asking is at the bottom where the bysuss is

samvan

I understand what you are trying to say, samvanrl. The reason may be that the clam is not attached to the rock it is resting on, hence the opening is not sealed. Can you pick up this clam and look under it? If you can, can you describe what you see?
The byssal organ( aparatus) is attached to the inside of the shell, to both halves with two muscle branches directly below the pallial line( next to the adductor muscle). The other pair of muscle,which is shorter, is attached to the backside of byssal organ and stretches to the lower part of the shells and ends on both halves close to the cardinal teeth. The organ itself is pretty mobile within the shells and can be lowered for attachment or raised by the clam.
If you pick up a clam you can make it release(lower) the byssal organ by touching soft tissue at the byssal opening.

FWIW, the clam in question looks to be OK if one would make a judgement by appearance... It does not necessarily means that the clam is healthy and it does look like it is gaping slightly. Eventhough croceas have their intake syphon open open a bit wider than other clams, it looks a bit too widely open to be ignored.

[Ninong]

I don't see anything wrong with it. It's looks healthy to me.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I don't see anything wrong with it. It's looks healthy to me.

I think so as well.
Usually, gaping clam has alot more going on than the wider opened intake sypon... the excurent syphon would withdrawn and open wide as well.
I used to have pictures of gaping and dying clams but I lost them when my hard drive crashed some time ago.

[samvanrl]

Originally Posted by BubbaWPB

Here is a picture of gaping from Clamsdirect.com.

Here is the way I understand the definition of gaping:

A gaping clam will appear as follows: shell fully open, mantle poorly extended, and inhalant siphon widely stretched

All three conditions have to be there for gaping.

link for reference:

http://www.animal-world.com/encyclo/...itter%20Corner

samvan

[samvanrl]

I got a reply from Barry of Clams Direct. He said

That is common, it will open and close. It is the aperture.

Thank you all