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Tridacna squamosa is called the fluted clam for the rows of curved fins or flutes on shell's exterior. The flutes tend to be much larger than those of T.maxima, and both T. gigas and Hippopus hippopus lack flutes except maybe in very tiny juveniles. Sometimes, however, the flutes get worn off, or they may be atypically large in T. maxima, occasionally causing confusion in species IDs. While both T. squamosa and T. maxima are highly variable in color and pattern, T. maxima always has a row of black spots near the very edge of the mantle, and these are lacking in T. squamosa. The basic color pattern in T. squamosa consists of colored dots that sometimes stretch out into elongate bands. Dark brown or black background with yellow dots is a common but by no means the only color pattern.