Thorny Oyster

Description

Thorny Oyster, Spondylus americanus is a unique clam found in the deep of the Caribbean Ocean (sometimes we find it in shallow water too). We start seeing them at depth of around 50 to 100 feet. We don’t do too many deep dives but when we do, we only select the nicest Thorny Oysters available. They have numerous spines which can grow up to 2 inches in length. Thorny Oysters come in a variety of colors (white, yellow, red and purple) which normally depends on the encrusting sponges and other marine life. The mantle is mostly brown, gold, white or grey.

Thorny Oyster are filter feeders which means that they have to be fed on a daily basis with products like Marine Snow and other planktonic foods. Even though they are in the scallop and clam family, they don’t move around like flame scallops and stay at the selected spot. They like strong currents but are very sensitive to changes in salinity which requires a very slow drip acclimation. Thorny Oysters like lower light levels because of the depth in which they have been found. If all the conditions are right, they cement themselves to a rock and they can grow up to 5 inches.

We try to collect them in smaller ranges but we also have bigger ones available every once in a while.

Our pictures are small Thorny Oysters but a small oyster doesn’t necessarily mean that they have short spines. All sizes are in diameters.

Small: Around 2 inches

Medium: 2.5 to 3.5 inches

Large: >3.5 inches

XL: >4.5 inches upon request.

Please note that every Thorny Oyster looks different which means they don’t necessarily look like the pictures.