Study of Age and Growth in the Blood Clam, Tegillarca rhombea (Born, 1778)

The blood clam, Tegillarca rhombea (Born, 1778), also known as blood cockle, is one of the commonly found clam along the south west coast of Maharashtra, India. Present work analyses the age and growth of this clam. T. (A.) rhombea was observed to attain extreme length of 67.5 mm during the sampling period from February 2014 to January 2015 (except June - July) and the analysis of observed and extreme length by FiSAT showed that the clam could attain extreme length of 70.58 mm. The length of 64 mm was attained at the end of the first year and 77 mm at second year. L∞ value was 90.28 mm and growth constant (k) was 1.15 monthly. The recruitment was observed in December (Projected values). The cumulative frequency analysis showed that the males reach first maturity at 22 mm and females at 24 mm.