Have you ever heard of the little black mussel? I’m presuming you haven’t, so you’re about to
find out what it eats, how it survives, life cycle and plenty more.
Feeding: Little black mussels feed on plankton and other microscopic sea creatures. They feed
by opening their mouths and filtering the food through their mouth parts. Like another sea
Species the hump back whale. Filter feeding is when the animal filters the food out of the water.
Habitat: Little black mussels are an extremely common species of mussels. Living in large groups
where sand and rock meet with the water. Little black mussels are only found in salt water. They
attach to sea weed and rocks in shallow waters all over the world.
Life cycle: In spring, each female mussel produces about 5 to 12 million eggs into the water,
where fertilisation by males will take place. About 99.9% of the fertilised larvae will become
food for other sea creatures. Even after this “murderous” event there are still 10,000 larvae left
to develop to juvenile mussels about 3mm in size, As the young mussels look for a home they
may end up being taken several hundred kilometres by sea currents when they have found a
home they will attach themselves to sea weed and hopefully have a danger free life.
The little black mussels are a very dark blue so dark it is mistaken for being black. It is very shiny
in and out of the water. It is a triangular shape and is protected by its hard shell these sea
creature are awesome and I hope you have now learnt about its feeding, habitat, life cycle and
hopefully plenty more.
Mirren Tye