preston mussels

Mussels

A Mussel is a shellfish.  A special name for it is mollusc. It is a bivalve because it has hinges with 2 shells that open up and close so that predators cannot eat the soft bit that is in the centre of the mussel.

Appearance

The mussel is 120mm [ 12 cm ] and it grows 10cm each year. The colour is blue black to brown with a shiny violet interior.

Dangers

A starfish and humans are dangers to mussels. Humans harm Mussels because we eat them. The starfish have a strange way of eating Mussels. First they wrench open a gap in the Mussels shell with their strong rays . Then they turn their own abdomen inside-out and  then eats the Mussel. After the have digested the Mussel the starfish then agains swallows its own abdomen.

Diet

Blue mussels eat microscopic plants and animals called plankton. They eat bacteria and dead plant and animal pieces suspended in the water. HOW IT EATS Mussels do not hunt for food. They wait for it to come to them. They filter feed by sucking water in through a siphon. A siphon is an opening on the posterior end of a Mussel, formed by the mantle tissue.

Habitat 

Blue mussels live in the south  of new zealand because they don’t mind the cold unlike green lipped Mussels which live in the north because the waters are warmer.

by Preston Sweney