Senior Aquatic Scientist, Lance Butler and his team of student interns have completed three propagation trials so far. You may know that the life cycle of the freshwater mussel is slightly complicated. Mussel larvae called glochidia must attach to the gills of a host fish to transform into juvenile mussels. In the lab, glochidia are […]
June 5, 2020 Although our doors are closed to the public, the science behind re-establishing our rivers mussel population continues.Through April and May, our scientists collected gravid females of two different species of freshwater mussels, Eastern Elliptio and Tidewater Mucket. Host fish were collected and acclimated in the hatchery tanks. Trout is the host fish […]
The cold (or not so cold) winter months have given us time to get our freshwater mussel hatchery ready for the new propagating season. Tanks and equipment are cleaned and sanitized. Equipment is built or repaired. Three brood stock tanks have been set up for the gravid female mussels (gravid means their eggs have been […]