Giant Clam

Môi trường sống: Sunlit reef flats, lagoon floors, and upper slopes — shallow because its symbiotic algae need strong light.

Phạm vi phân bố: Coral Triangle, Micronesia, and the Great Barrier Reef; fished out of much of its former Indo-Pacific range, with reintroductions in several countries.

Hành vi: Sessile after settlement; gapes its patterned mantle to the sun by day, contracting and slowly closing when shadowed. Spawns by broadcast, fogging the water with gametes.

Chế độ ăn: Mostly sugars from symbiotic algae farmed in the mantle, topped up by filter feeding.

Kích thước: thường vào khoảng 1.0 m; ghi nhận đến độ sâu 1.3 m (shell length; the largest reliably weighed animals exceed 200 kg).

Keep fins, gauges, and hands clear of the mantle and siphons; shadow the animal as little as possible and never test the closing reflex.

Listed Vulnerable under a 1996 assessment widely considered out of date — recent studies argue it is far more threatened — locally extinct in parts of its range, and traded under CITES Appendix II; hatchery programs restock several countries.