A Compact Recirculating System for Laboratory Culture of Freshwater Bivalves

摘要

Efforts to culture freshwater mussels (Unionoida) have increased in recent years because many species are now endangered and other species are significant for freshwater pearl culture (see sidebar). The freshwater mussel life cycle includes a larval stage that is parasitic on fish, which complicates mussel culture. Larvae are generally extracted from the female mussel and fish are infected by swimming in water containing the juveniles. The metamorphosed juveniles drop from the fish after a predictable interval and are recovered by filtration. Newly metamorphosed juveniles are about 0.15-0.3 mm long and live interstitially in sediments, mainly in rivers, where they use ciliary mechanisms to feed on bacteria, phytoplank-ton and detritus.