For 12 hours, fertilized Giant Clam eggs float in the sea
until eventually a larva hatches. It then starts producing
a chalk shell, and by age two days measures 0.0063 inches.

Soon it develops a 'foot' used to move on the bottom,
though it can also swim to search for appropriate habitat.

At roughly one week, the clam spat settles on the reef.
The larva does not yet have symbiotic algae, so it depends
completely on plankton. Eventually the mantle captures
free-floating zooxanthellae while filtering food.

Unlike this farm hatched one year old ('dad' in the tank),
many 'wild' small clams die at this stage. Laboratory-reared
Giant Tridacna Clams can grow 4.5 inches per year.