Crocea Giant Clam Tridacna crocea

Crocea Giant Clam
Crocea Giant Clam
Maxima and Crocea Giant Clams
The Crocea Clam, also called Crocus, is one of several Giant Clams. It also has the seemingly contradictory name of Dwarf Giant Clam as it is the smallest of the giants, growing to some 15cm wide. Another of its common names is the Boring Giant Clam, not because it isn't interesting but because it burrows into the hard substrate to hide. This practice means that most ornamentation on the shell is smoothed off. Like other giant clams, it has a colourful mantle. (The third image above shows a comparison of two Maxima or "Small" Giant Clams in the background and one Crocea or "Dwarf" in the foreground.) It is native to coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific. They hatch as free-swimming larvae. After their first years as a clam they become male and later hermaphrodite.