Post #4367845

Giant clams love light. As a general rule, the more light they can get for their symbiotic algae, the better. Some species will even continue to photosynthesize in air for hours exposed by the tide, since their photosynthesis provides them some oxygen. Which makes the "devil clam" (Tridacna mbalavuana) from Tonga and Fiji so weird. It lives up to 100 ft down! The super clear waters where it's found allow it to live as a kind of counterpart to mesophotic corals, which are able to photosynthesize even far from the sunlit surface. Since they are so rare, the devil clams are not well studied, but researchers determined it is able to compensate for its very deep lifestyle through some of the greatest photosynthetic efficiency known from giant clams! #clamFacts https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/479982-Tridacna-mbalavuana