Lima (genus)
Flame clam Lima scabra
The genus Lima, also called filing mussel, is one of the shells of Limidae family. It is detected as fossil since the Palaeozoic (Upper Carboniferous before about 320 million years ago).
Dissemination
The flame clam Lima scabra is known from the western Atlantic, especially from the Caribbean, where it is mainly found in the coral reefs. The distribution area is from North Carolina to the north and northern Brazil to the south. Research on the biology of reproduction flame clam found in the Golfo de Cariaco, Venezuela, instead of, phylogenetic analyzes were performed on files shellfish from the area around the Florida Keys.
In the Pacific, Lima pacifica is also represented in tropical waters, among other things, Ecuador and Peru, near the Galapagos Islands (Lima pacifica galapagensis ).
In Europe one finds hians Lima and Lima loscombi on the Atlantic coast, Lima inflata in the Mediterranean.
Nutrition
Filter Files shells as the other mussel species their food from the water stream. Here are the types of Lima their tentacles to assist you. The mussels filter detritus, bacteria, phytoplankton, nauplius larvae or rotifers. In the aquarium needs to be fed on a regular basis once or twice a day. Although their biomass production is high, filing mussels are not utilized as food commercially. This is due to the fact that they are difficult to harvest in the reefs. Bountiful harvest methods would destroy the reef. For Saltwater However, the colorful shells are commercially available.
Fossils
Also in the Mesozoic there are many fossil remains of the related genus with today's Lima shells. Especially in the Muschelkalk of the Germanic Triassic is Plagiostoma striatum, which was formerly known as Lima striata, very often. It reaches a length of up to 7 cm. Even then the files mussels lived in the sea and are often in Trochitenkalk together with Stielgiedern the crinoids Encrinus liliformis found.
Attitude
The tropical type flame clam ( Lima scabra ) can be kept in a saltwater aquarium, but preferred invertebrates pool. The clams can swim freely, but established themselves usually by means of byssus threads in a well- perfused site.
List of species
The genus includes some representatives. Known representative is probably:
- Lima lima (Linnaeus, 1758), the filing mussel