Zebra mussels: These animals have a bad reputation because they're invasive to many parts of the world and their presence in non-native ecosystems has harmed native animals by reducing food and habitat available to them.
What do zebra mussels do to humans?
So, zebra mussels can be bad news, there are plenty of other articles on this topic though today we're going to focus on the animal itself and not the unintentional destruction it has caused remember zebra mussels have spread around the world because of humans. So let's not be so quick to blame the mussels zebra mussels are native to slow-moving fresh water systems of Eurasia and perhaps more specifically to lakes of southern Russia and the surrounding regions.
They can be beneficial to freshwater systems because like oysters a large colony can filter huge amounts of plankton from the water which makes the water more clear thus allowing more light to penetrate to aquatic plants which then provide food and habitat to other organisms. It's the circle of life in action zebra mussel adults are cecil meaning they remain in a single place until they die.
That doesn't technically mean they can't move because they're able to settle onto other animals that are able to move around like crabs but for the most part these bivalves prefer hard surfaces like rocks. They stick to these surfaces by releasing threads that hold them in place. Though they have the name zebra muscle for their striped appearance.
These mollusks also come with no stripes and just a single color one way to tell them apart from other muscles is to see if they can stand up on their own the bottom of a zebra muscle shell is so flat that it can stand on a smooth surface without rolling in size. Adults max out at two inches in length these bivalves start out life as an egg males and females who may begin reproducing after their first year.
In optimal temperatures release sperm and eggs into the water column to be fertilized externally the eggs hatch about three to five days later into larvae they'll live as larvae for about a month before settling onto a surface. This is a hazardous time for the zebra mussel as the larvae are easy targets to small fish copepods hydras and freshwater sponges.
Though they don't have eyes if adults are disturbed or pick up chemical cues that someone unpleasant is nearby they'll close their shells. Predators to zebra mussel adults include fish with strong enough beaks to break the mussel's shell like bream and carp as well as ducks, gulls, crabs, crayfish and more. If they can avoid these predators they can live anywhere from three to nine years of age.
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPdie2FVK0