Alyce Diehlp age 8 of Trexlertown, PA
What does a clam eat?
The little clam just sits and waits for his dinner to be served to him. He may be a soft shelled clam buried deep in the mud or sand, Or he may be a hard shelled clam just covered over with mud or sand in shallow water, Whatever kind of clam he is, he does not bother to forage for his food, he waits for it to be put into his mouth,
Clam food is served in liquid forms like soup. It may be mixed with either fresh or salt water, The food itself is in tiny bits, most of them too small for you to see. Seawater is chock‑full of other things besides salts There are tiny one‑celled sea plants and broken bits of seaweed, There are minutes one‑celled sea animals fish eggs and bits of larger fishes, There are also such bits and pieces in lake and river water, All this is food for the clam.
The clam has a siphon which carries a supply of this soup into his body. There are two tubes. One takes in the water carrying food., and oxygen for breathing, The other removes waste food and carbon dioxide, The siphon of the soft shelled clam is an inch or two long. It is the neck you take hold of when you eat a steamed clam.
This fellow buries himself deep in the mud or sand, If not disturbed he stays in that one spot for life, His siphon pokes up to the water level, Often he lives on beaches where the tide washes to and fro. He is under water only at high tide. When the tide ebbs it is time for him to pull in his siphon and close up his two shells. This he does with a loud snap. The noise may often give away his hiding place, Also; at this time, he squirts out the extra water between his shells. A little fountain may suddenly jet up from his hiding place.
The hard shelled clam has a very short siphon, He can bury himself only shell: deep for he has no neck to poke up to the water like a periscope., He usually prefers to, live under water all the time not just at high tide.
The water from the siphon floats around the soft body of the clam inside his inside his two shells, He has a mouth and two moveable lips. As the water floats by these lips grab the bits and pieces of food. They stuff them into his mouth, they pass down a little throat into a little stomach. There they are digested.
Oxygen is snatched from the water by a pair of flat gills. It passes from the gills into the clams bloodstream. Yes, the clam has bloods though it is not red blood, It is a pales, colorless fluid very rich in protein and copper, The clam even has a tiny heart to keep his bloodstream flowing. The bloods like yours and mine even if it isn't red, carries oxygen to all parts of the body.