Mushroom "Rock"

[tebstan]

I love the oddball stuff. So when I saw this "mushroom rock" wasn't really a rock, I had to have it. It's some sort of clam, with mushrooms all over it. And bonus, a live mussel on the back side, which has a live barnacle on it. It's like the "hole in a bucket" song... It's mushrooms on a clam on a mussel on a barnacle.... Ha, I love it.

It's been a few days, and the mushrooms look better, but still pretty shriveled and sad. They were throwing their guts when I got them, so this is an improvement. Now that they're unwrapping themselves, I'm wondering, any chance these are baby rics? or just bumpy shrooms?

The whole shebang:
Mushroom Rock 04-20-10.jpg
The mussel and barnacle:
Barnacle 04-20-10.jpg
Clam:
Mouth Close up 04-20-10.jpg
Mantle:
Mantle 04-20-10.jpg

[Mr Cob]

That is definitely a unique piece. What kind of clam? Do you know where all this stuff came from? What ocean/reef?

[Europhyllia]

The mouth and mantle of the clam almost looks like a spiny oyster to me.
I'll look for some mouth pics of my spiny oyster...

[Europhyllia]

here you go:
spinyoystermouth.jpg

[tebstan]

Wow. Sure looks like that! Oyster, huh? Didn't even occur to me. Both are filter feeding bivalves right, so do I need to do anything differently?

I was amazed to see the little barnacle made it and is busy most of the time. I'm not sure where they came from, but I'll try to find out today. I had mixed feelings about it - obviously it was wild harvested, which is a shame. Clams breed by spewing reproductive cells out to mix with their neighbors, yanking one from the ocean dooms it, genetically speaking. If it turns out to be any oyster, it's probably in the same boat. But it's here now, so it least I got it and will appreciate it and feed it. Everyone else I've pointed it out to was not impressed, or even called it ugly. :(

[Europhyllia]

Everyone else I've pointed it out to was not impressed, or even called it ugly. :(

Spiny oysters are beautiful and I think I actually paid more for my spiny oyster than for many of my clams.
Obviously it's not photosynthetic so feeding is imperative.
Mine gets phyto every day.
What does the shell look like? Spiny oysters are called spiny oysters because they have little horns on their shell...

[tebstan]

The natural shell is almost invisible. It's totally encrusted with a thick layer of coralline, old barnacles, and mushrooms. It's general shape is more rounded than the giant clams.

I'm not sure where to place it. My other mysterious clam thing found himself a cave out of the light. This one isn't photosynthetic either, but there are the mushrooms to think about. The other clam was able to scoot around a bit to find his cave, but this thing is dragging some baggage and can't get around on its own.

[Slave]

Check out jewel box clams. Spiny oysters generally have a more recognizable shell.

[tebstan]

Check out jewel box clams. Spiny oysters generally have a more recognizable shell.

Thanks for the tip. I found Spondylus, a family of oysters that fits this guy, commonly called Jewel Box or Thorny or Spiny oysters. Looks most like the Spondylus varians, but no way to tell for sure. It was neat to find other pics that showed how pretty and unique these are. My bivalves not ugly.