FRESHWATER MUSSELS
Robert McCormack
The Freshwater Mussel– Velesunio ambiguous is a native of the Murray Darling System. There are 2 different types of mussels in NSW, river and flood plain. The river mussels require flowing water to live and breed. Flood plain mussels are the ones aquacultured in NSW as they require still static water and thrive in so farm dams or ponds are perfect.
Mussels are excellent for dams, ponds or fish tanks. These Mussels grow well in farm dams and breed readily, a minimum of 100 mussels are required to establish a population in a normal farm dam or ornamental pond.
Freshwater Mussels are biological filters, they suck water in, filter algae, plankton and pollutants from the water and eject pure, clean, clear water. They are the ideal remedy for dirty water, mussels will keep it clean without the need for power filters or chemicals. People with ornamental ponds want clean clear water but without chemicals and filters the water tends to go green with algae. By adding mussels they filter the water, keeping it clear and clean so perfect for those people looking for environmentally friendly remedy.
People with earthen farm dams growing fish or yabbies grow mussels with them for much the same reason, they are biological filters filtering the algaes and bacteria from the dam water cleaning it. They are especially important if you are swimming in the dam.
The males release sperm into the water column, the females then suck the sperm in with the normal water they take in. The eggs are then fertilized and incubated inside the female mussel. Baby mussels ejected by the female and require a host stage to develop into miniature adults. Fish are the best hosts and any of the native fish such as Silver Perch, Golden Perch and Bass will do as well as the ornamentals like Goldfish and Koi.
Mussels have a large strong, tough tongue that they push themselves around the dam with or burrow into the pond bottom. The mussel burrows with only the top tip of the mussel shell protruding from the mud. From this position the inlet and outlet tubes filter the water. To capture mussels you need to run your hands along the bottom of the dam and when you feel this round top of the shell you can pull them from the mud.
Freshwater mussels are traditional aboriginal tribal food. However we consider them pretty rough tucker, you need to be hungry to eat them.
If you would like to purchase freshwater mussels: