The Philadelphia water department is studying how best to raise freshwater mussels. Why? So they can raise an absolute shit ton and put them in our rivers. Freshwater mussels are incredibly important for filtering excess nutrients and particulates from water. By deploying a million mussels a year the water department hopes to use these critters to improve our city’s water quality! Right now they raise about 10,000 mussels a year and hope to scale up to a million a year soon!
Edit: These are native species of mussels that belong here!
When Tomasz Wilk settled to camp one evening on the banks of a Polish river, he didn't expect to find fountains in the shallows. Though reminiscent of an archer fish's shot, this stream comes from a freshwater mussel. (Image credit: T Wilk; via Wildlife POTY)
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For sessile invertebrates like mussels, getting around can be quite hard. Fortunately, many freshwater species have a very special solution: following fertilization, adults string out their larvae on special lures called super-conglutinates. These lures resemble small fish which, just like a fisherman's lure, entice larger fish to come in for a bite. The larvae attach themselves to the fish's gills and get a free ride to their new habitat!
(Image: A plain pocketbook mussel (Lampsilis cardium) displaying its fishy super-conglutinate lure by Ryan Haggerty)
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