A small invasive species of clam that lives mostly in freshwater.

The ecosystem has been through a lot, with many species going extinct and the survivors having to adapt to the new environment. Though able to tolerate many different habitats, the Asian clam had to adapt to living in saltwater with little oxygen. To survive, it had to reinvent itself.

Much like in the past, the clam is still an invasive parasitic species that depends on other species in its ecosystem to survive. Its current host species is the flathead grey mullet.

No longer able to close to protect itself from predators, the clam now exposes itself as bait, sacrificing itself and expelling its larvae into the mullet’s body to live there as parasites. The larvae live inside the mullet until they reach maturity and are ready to reproduce. In the adult stage, the clams find their way out of the fish, fertilize themselves with their hermaphroditic genitalia and start the cycle anew.

The clam’s new traits enable it to move more freely inside the fish until it’s time for it to come out. It has retained its ability to filter water and absorb nutrients from it, except now it filters its host’s blood, sustaining itself much like an embryo through an umbilical cord. The clam’s life cycle is a constant struggle for sustenance.

Sawsan Masarwa, Inbar Klachkin, Daniela Pascale Rojas Levy