Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Moved a handfull of mussels out of the pool and into the yabbie tank that over flows into the pool. Little guys seem to have there tongues out all the time. Does having water flow increase there filter feeding?

I would assume not duff as they can only suck in and spit out so much water a day, tongues out would indicate they haven't found a spot to settle, but water flow may assist in breeding as sperm will get around more (a bit like having sex in a spa I suppose) but then they still need the host to metamorphosis into a mussel

I know I'm bringing an old thread back to life, but I only just found it

Nocky - has the mussel breeding progressed ? Are they definitely breeding on an ongoing basis ?

Or was it just the extra 20 you found when you cleaned out the old tank a few months back ?

No sign of breeding here. Those that survived are happy though. I think I lost about 50% or more. There's a few empty shells.

Nigel I PMed you, sorry have been actually working and unable to get in , I am not one for publishing PM's but as it contains nothing I will

Thanks Nocky, thanks KP

No worries Nocky - only PM'ed you as the thread disappeared from Recent Topics list pretty quickly.

Hopefully I can get some in this summer - unless my builder dies, which would be the only way he could be slower than he currently is. Not absolutely sure that I'd be able to tell the difference though.

Going to try mine with PP as well.

Cheers

Any fresh reports on the suitability of Australian freshwater mussels for AP systems?

In the irrigation districts around Mildura (near the Murray-Darling junction) the local river mussels do a lot of damage to big irrigation farm pump systems (e.g., pumps that'll do 50 acres of vines in one hit).

We have a sealed "water on demand" distribution system in our district. They get into the system at the monster pump that pumps everyone's water from the river into the main distribution pipes. They then grow inside these pipes until something triggers them to move from the main pipes into the inlet pipe of your farm pump. If you have a crude filter they get past that (either whole mussels or shell fragments) and into your lines and block all your sprays. If you have a finer, more expensive filter/s they just clag it so suddenly that the filter gets sucked/blown to bits. It is a hideous problem.

You can have years with no problems and then have months where they hit 2 or 3 or your irrigations. When they do hit, the water that comes out of your part-blocked sprays smells sulfur-rotten. We guess that they only move into our pipes from the main pipes when they die. Maybe there is low flow in the main pipes sometimes and they suffocate and lose their grip? (Not sure if they have a gripping foot?) The ones that cause this problem are fairly young, about 10-20 mm long (I've taken mature adults of this species from the river that are over 150 mm long).

So I would be interested to know:

Has anyone had any problems with them either clogging pipes/filters or harming fish?

I've only tried to eat the river ones once. I purged them for a week in rainwater and then marinated them in a vinegar/white wine mix. Even though they were close to 150 mm long and felt meaty and plump when I got them out of the river they were tough, tasteless, and had little flesh or flavor after I marinated them--and I normally love mussels and oysters. One of the gurus from Austasia Aquaculture stated in an aquaculture text that he tried every trick in the (cook)book with them and got the same result as I did--essentially tough and no flavor.

But if there is a species that filters the water, doesn't harm the fish, doesn't clog pipes and tastes good I love to use them in an AP system.

There are aboriginal mussel shell middens on the river banks near my parent's farm that are tens of metres deep so they must have something going for them.

They're good bait for Murray Cod!

I, and many others.... use them in our AP systems... to fine "polish" the water...

Yeah, I know a few people with 'em, but never heard of anything getting clogged by them.

Yep - so far every one I've tried is about as tasty and satisfying as chewing on my thong ! (and that's my foot/feet thong, not my g-string )

Ever tried eating them Rupert??

Nope...

Hello Rupe:

Are you just using the one species of mussel?
Do they breed in your system?
If they do breed, have you seen those cysts on any of your fish that were described somewhere in this thread?

Thanks for the info about the thong Chilli it was merciful of you to head of any potential misunderstanding.

Yeah, scared myself there for a second too!

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my mussels still going in gold fish pond, ate a few early in the piece, a bit chewy and not much flavour, need chilli sauce, they are ok but don't expect to have a huge mussel supply, ran them in small indoor aquarium with no filter and they did a great job, got sick of aquarium and mussels ended up in outside tank, they filter 20-40lts of water a day, I had 5 in indoor 100lt tank