Survival and growth of juvenile freshwater mussels (Unionidae) in a recirculating aquaculture system

Peer-reviewed. Copyright © 1998 F.X. O'Beirn et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.An indoor recirculating aquaculture system was constructed to provide suitable conditions to culture juvenile freshwater mussels. In the first of three growth trials, Villosa iris (I. Lea, 1829) juveniles were cultured for 22 wk, and grew from an initial mean length of 0.4 mm to 2.7 mm. Survival was 26.8% overall. In the second trial, growth and survival were compared between juveniles of V. iris held in sediment and without sediment. The initial mean length of both groups was 2.7 mm, and this experiment ran for 17 wk. The juvenile mussels in sediment grew to a mean length of 5.7 mm with 85% survival, significantly greater (p < 0.01) than juveniles held without sediment (4.5 mm, 74% survival). In the third trial, two cohorts of juvenile Lampsilis fasciola Rafinesque, 1815, increased in length from I.I mm and 1.4 mm to 3.3 mm and 4.1 mm, respectively, with comparable survival (78.7% versus 64.5%). Results of these trials demonstrate that juvenile mussels can be reared successfully within recirculating systems. One of the factors deemed important in successful culture is continuous feeding of an appropriate food source. In this study, a unialgal culture of Neochloris oleabundans Chantanachat and Bold, 1962, was used throughout. Regular cleaning of the system and water replacement also was important. Finally, the culture of juveniles in sediment appears to be an important factor in ensuring good growth and survival. This phenomenon could be related to pedal feeding behavior, proper orientation of the mussels for filtering efficiency, or stability from physical disturbance