[RhondaJ32]

I am just wandering how clams are taken in the wild. I have read that if their muscles are damaged they can die very easy. So how are they taken in the wild without harming their muscle while being removed from the rock they are attached to? This really got me to thinking, how do we really know that a clam we buy will live or not if it is wild caught because they may have hurt its muscle which will eventually cause its death. I may be off here but it is just something I was thinking about.

[Ninong]

The two species to be concerned about would be Tridacna crocea and T. maxima, especially T. crocea. They have the strongest attachment. In fact, croceas are usually found semi-buried in the rocky substrate and they chisel them out. If they were to pull the byssus gland out of a crocea clam it would die.

Clams can be removed from the rock that they are attached to by skillful use of a sharp knife to cut the byssus threads right up against the rock. If this is done properly, the clam will not be damaged.

A lot of the crocea and maxima clams that are available in the trade are now captive-bred. They are grown in cages in the ocean (about 6 feet below the surface) just offshore.

The larger species of Tridacnids have weak byssus glands and will not suffer permanent damage the way that a crocea would if it were simply pulled from the rock.

Ninong [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

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Irrational Exuberance!