Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Orig­i­nally, Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis had a re­stricted dis­tri­b­u­tion. Quagga mus­sels were lo­cated in the Dnieper-Bug Es­tu­ary and In­guletz river in Ukraine where they were first dis­cov­ered in 1890. They began to ex­pand through­out East­ern Eu­rope into the Black Sea, Dnieper River, Prip­iat River, Main and Rhine Rivers, and to the Don and Manych Rivers. Then, 40 years after the open­ing of the Volga-Don canal, they in­vaded the Volgo-Caspian. The canal con­nected the two. They have also spread to North Amer­ica and Canada, in Lake On­tario in 1991. The quagga mus­sel has spread through­out the Great Lakes and the Mis­sis­sippi River, into Michi­gan, Mis­souri, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Penn­syl­va­nia, Col­orado, Ari­zona and Cal­i­for­nia. (Mills, et al., 1996; Rin­te­len and Van Damme, 2014)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • introduced
• palearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Quagga mus­sels live in fresh­wa­ter es­tu­ar­ine habi­tats. Dur­ing the plank­tonic stage the larva swims as a free-liv­ing crea­ture in the water. When the mus­sels be­come ju­ve­niles they at­tach to nat­ural hard sur­faces such as rocks, wood, and plants na­tive to the fresh­wa­ter lake or pond. In deeper wa­ters where there is less tur­bu­lence, they are also able to col­o­nize soft sur­faces such as sand. These mus­sels also at­tach them­selves to man-made struc­tures made of steel, wood, nylon, metal pip­ing, or con­crete. Ma­ture mus­sels tend to at­tach them­selves to these sur­face struc­tures right under the sur­face of the water less than 100 me­ters down un­less the wind ag­i­tates them, in which case they will live a lit­tle deeper down. They have been found as deep as 140 m, though most are found at a depth of about 4 to 10 m. (Brit­ton, 2007; Ian­niello, 2013; Mills, et al., 1996; Ussery and McMa­hon, 1995)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• freshwater

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams

• Other Habitat Features
• estuarine

• Range depth

  140 (high) m

  459.32 (high) ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis, also known as the quagga mus­sel is a fresh­wa­ter bi­valve mol­lusk. Dur­ing the lar­val, or veliger stage the quagga mus­sel is mi­cro­scopic at a size rang­ing from 40 to 462 mi­crom­e­ters. A full grown quagga mus­sel is no larger than a thumb­nail, which is about 30 to 40 mil­lime­ters. The shell of the mus­sel is a light brown to al­most white by the hinge of the shell with black or dark brown stripes/rings. The shell is fan-shaped with edges that come to points on both sides. Be­tween the ven­tral and dor­sal sides the shell has a very rounded angle, or ca­rina. The ven­tral side of the shell is con­vex, mak­ing it im­pos­si­ble for the shell to be able to stand up. When quag­gas are looked at from the ven­tral view it is very clear that the two valves of the mus­sel are asym­met­ri­cal. (Ben­son, et al., 2013; Sykes, 2010; "Quagga Mus­sels", 2014)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range length

  30 to 40 mm

  1.18 to 1.57 in

De­vel­op­ment

The life cycle of the quagga mus­sel starts when fer­til­iza­tion is done ex­ter­nally in the water. Sev­eral days after fer­til­iza­tion, tro­chophore larva de­velop, start­ing the plank­tonic stage of de­vel­op­ment. A tro­chophore is a free-swim­ming larva. In 4 to 5 days the tro­chophore will change into a D-shaped veliger. Soon the larva will form a part of its shell called the um­bone mak­ing the larva known as an um­bonal veliger. Then the veliger will de­velop a foot shaped struc­ture, a char­ac­ter­is­tic of all mol­lusks, be­com­ing a pe­di­veliger. With the for­ma­tion of the shell and foot the pe­di­veliger is now able to at­tach it­self to a sub­strate and start de­vel­op­ing into a ju­ve­nile mus­sel. Quagga mus­sels often stay in the form of a veliger for sev­eral weeks be­fore start­ing the process of be­com­ing a ma­ture mus­sel. Once a veliger be­comes a ju­ve­nile mus­sel it has en­tered into the ben­thic stage of de­vel­op­ment where it be­comes ses­sile and be­gins to grow. When a fe­male set­tles into the ju­ve­nile stage, it can start re­pro­duc­ing on its sec­ond year of life. (Ian­niello, 2013)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis

Re­pro­duc­tion

Fer­til­iza­tion is ex­ter­nal for Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis, so mat­ing is lim­ited to males and fe­males in prox­im­ity to each other re­leas­ing their ga­metes into the water. (Ian­niello, 2013)

Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis are pro­lific breed­ers and they pro­duce ga­metes in abun­dance. Fe­male dreis­senids can pro­duce 40,000 eggs in one re­pro­duc­tive cycle. Fe­males and males live to­gether and fer­til­iza­tion is ex­ter­nal once the ga­metes are re­leased into the water. Water tem­per­a­ture has an ef­fect on re­pro­duc­tion, as warmer water tem­per­a­tures have shown to ini­ti­ate quagga mus­sel spawn­ing. Typ­i­cally, quagga mus­sels re­pro­duce year round. (Ian­niello, 2013)

• Key Reproductive Features
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • external
• broadcast (group) spawning

• Breeding season

  Mating takes place year-round.

There is no parental care for Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis. Fer­til­iza­tion oc­curs out­side the body of the fe­male, and the de­vel­op­ing mus­sels are en­tirely in­de­pen­dent of the par­ents. (Ian­niello, 2013)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Typ­i­cally the lifes­pan of the Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis is 4 to 5 years. (Ian­niello, 2013)

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  4 to 5 years

Be­hav­ior

Adult quagga mus­sels are ses­sile, mean­ing that they are fixed in one place and im­mov­able. The lar­val stage is free-swim­ming. (Mackie, 2010)

• Key Behaviors
• sessile
• sedentary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

These mol­lusks have no head or eyes. There­fore, they are not able to see. They are able to de­tect chem­i­cals in the water, as well as grav­ity, move­ment, and tem­per­a­ture. If quagga mus­sels feel threat­ened, they will tightly close their shell. (Mackie, 2010)

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

These mus­sels are fil­ter feed­ers, mean­ing that they fil­ter plank­ton and nu­tri­ents sus­pended in the water. They use cilia, hair-like pro­jec­tions, to pull water into their shell through a tube-like struc­ture, the in­cur­rent siphon. The nu­tri­ents are then fil­tered out and the water then leaves the body of the mus­sel through an­other tube-like struc­ture, the ex­cur­rent siphon. Adult mus­sels are able to fil­ter out about one liter of water each day. Fil­ter­ing can re­move phy­to­plank­ton, zoo­plank­ton, and algae. (Mackie, 2010)

• Primary Diet
• planktivore

• Animal Foods
• zooplankton

• Plant Foods
• algae
• phytoplankton

• Foraging Behavior
• filter-feeding

Pre­da­tion

Quagga mus­sels have few nat­ural preda­tors. One preda­tor is yel­low perch, Perca flavescens. A study in 1994 showed that yel­low perch found D. bu­gen­sis un­palat­able, yet ten years later a sec­ond study found that yel­low perch had in­tro­duced the quagga mus­sel into its diet, be­com­ing one of its few nat­ural preda­tors. (Pop­ple, 2006)

• Known Predators

  • yellow perch, Perca flavescens

Ecosys­tem Roles

As an in­va­sive species, Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis has a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment. Quagga mus­sels can fil­ter large quan­ti­ties of water, de­creas­ing the lev­els of plank­ton and nu­tri­ents in the water, de­priv­ing other or­gan­isms. Quagga mus­sels often co-habi­tate with the closely re­lated zebra mus­sel, Dreis­sena poly­mor­pha, an­other in­va­sive species. Quagga mus­sels have ac­tu­ally dis­placed zebra mus­sels in Ukraine, and ap­pear to be doing so in the Great Lakes as well. Quagga mus­sels are ca­pa­ble of col­o­niz­ing sur­faces at greater depths than zebra mus­sels, so they tend to dom­i­nate at these lower depths.

Quagga mus­sels also have few nat­ural preda­tors, ex­cept for yel­low perch, which al­lows them to fur­ther dom­i­nate wa­ter­ways. The pre­da­tion by yel­low perch may ac­tu­ally be­come detri­men­tal, as a bot­u­lism caus­ing bac­te­ria called Clostrid­ium bot­u­linum that ac­cu­mu­lates in the quagga mus­sels through their feed­ing habits is now being ex­posed to the pre-ex­ist­ing food chain. Clostrid­ium bot­u­linum has al­ready caused heavy dam­age in Lake Erie, killing tens of thou­sands of bird and fish species, pos­ing a se­ri­ous threat to what­ever ecosys­tem it is pre­sent in. (Pop­ple, 2006; Hickie, 2010; Mills, et al., 1996; Pop­ple, 2006)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive ef­fects of Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis on hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis is a per­sis­tent in­va­sive species, form­ing thick lay­ers on wa­ter­ways, im­ped­ing water flow, even clog­ging pipes in water treat­ment plants. The fil­ter feed­ing abil­i­ties of quagga mus­sels lower plank­ton lev­els and re­lease pseu­do­fe­ces that raise acid lev­els in the water it in­hab­its, caus­ing is­sues for other or­gan­isms in their habi­tat. (Hickie, 2010; Hod­dle, 2011)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis is cat­e­go­rized as "least con­cern" by the IUCN. As a sig­nif­i­cant in­va­sive species, with a grow­ing pop­u­la­tion, ef­forts are con­cerned with con­trol­ling pop­u­la­tions, rather than con­ser­va­tion. (Mackie, 2010)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Ash­ley Eaton (au­thor), Grand View Uni­ver­sity, Cody Red­mond (au­thor), Grand View Uni­ver­sity, LundyS Van­sy­lalom (au­thor), Grand View Uni­ver­sity, Fe­lic­i­tas Aven­dano (ed­i­tor), Grand View Uni­ver­sity, Dan Chib­nall (ed­i­tor), Grand View Uni­ver­sity, An­gela Miner (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

Wis­con­sin DNR. 2014. "Quagga Mus­sels" (On-line). EEK-Crit­ter Cor­ner. Ac­cessed March 01, 2014 at http://​dnr.​wi.​gov/​org/​caer/​ce/​eek/​critter/​invert/​quaggamussel.​htm.

Ben­son, A., M. Rich­er­son, E. May­nard, J. Lar­son, A. Fusaro. 2013. "Dreis­sena ros­tri­formis bu­gen­sis" (On-line). USGS-Non­i­dige­nous Aquatic Species. Ac­cessed March 05, 2014 at http://​nas.​er.​usgs.​gov/​queries/​FactSheet.​aspx?​speciesID=95.

Brit­ton, D. 2007. "Zebra & Quagga Mus­sel In­va­sion in North Amer­ica" (On-line pdf). U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ser­vice. Ac­cessed March 01, 2014 at http://​www.​100thmeridian.​org/​ActionTeams/​RioGrande/​zq.​pdf.

Hickie, V. 2010. "The Quagga Mus­sel Cri­sis At Lake Mead Na­tional Recre­ation Area" (On-line). EBSCO Host. Ac­cessed April 04, 2014 at http://​web.​a.​ebscohost.​com/​ehost/​detail?​sid=39c43653-f8df-4732-8450-f77feab6ad2b%40sessionmgr4005&​vid=1&​hid=4206&​bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#​db=aph&​AN=52236531.

Hod­dle, M. 2011. "CISR" (On-line). Quagga & Zebra Mus­sels. Ac­cessed April 02, 2014 at https://​cisr.​ucr.​edu/​quagga_​zebra_​mussels.​html.

Ian­niello, R. 2013. "Ef­fects of En­vi­ron­men­tal Vari­ables on the Re­pro­duc­tion of Quagga Mus­sels (Dreis­sena ros­tri­formis bu­gen­sis) in Lake Mead, NV/AZ" (On-line pdf). UNLV. Ac­cessed March 02, 2014 at http://​digitalscholarship.​unlv.​edu/​cgi/​viewcontent.​cgi?​article=2843&​context=thesesdissertations.

Mackie, G. 2010. "Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis" (On-line). Global In­va­sive Species Data­base. Ac­cessed April 04, 2014 at http://​www.​issg.​org/​database/​species/​ecology.​asp?​si=918&​fr=1&​sts=&​lang=EN.

Mackie, G. 2010. "Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis (mol­lucs)" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2014 at http://​www.​issg.​org/​database/​species/​ecology.​asp?​si=918&​fr=1&​sts=&​lang=EN.

Mills, E., G. Rosen­berg, A. Spi­dle, M. Ludyan­skiy, Y. Pli­gin, B. May. 1996. A re­view of the bi­ol­ogy and ecol­ogy of the quagga mus­sel (Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis), a sec­ond species of dreis­senid in­tro­duced to North Amer­ica. Amer­i­can Zo­ol­o­gist, 36: 271-286.

Pop­ple, I. 2006. "Perch dis­cover na­ture's junk food" (On-line). Mcgill. Ac­cessed April 04, 2014 at http://​www.​mcgill.​ca/​reporter/​37/​02/​ricciardi/​.

Rin­te­len, T., D. Van Damme. 2014. "Range De­scrip­tion" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2014 at http://​eol.​org/​data_​objects/​28096977.

Sykes, C. 2010. "De­vel­op­ment of an Ef­fi­cient Method for Re­moval of Quagga Mus­sel Veligers from Trans­port Tanks at Wil­low Beach Na­tional Fish Hatch­ery" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed March 04, 2014 at http://​www.​lcrmscp.​gov/​reports/​2010/​c30_​quagga_​mussel_​10_​26sep12.​pdf.

Ussery, T., R. McMa­hon. 1995. "Com­par­a­tive Study of the Des­ic­ca­tion Re­sis­tance of Zebra Mus­sels (Dreis­sena poly­mor­pha) and Quagga Mus­sels (Dreis­sena bu­gen­sis)" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed March 01, 2014 at http://​el.​erdc.​usace.​army.​mil/​elpubs/​pdf/​trel95-6.​pdf.