They have only found a few baby(veliger) mussels in Colorado. And I believe they were alreay dead.

Ill look up some more info and post it.

http://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=20901

Common Carp, Freshwater Drum, and I believe Smallmouth buffalo will all eat them as well.

In reality, common carp predation on zebra mussels may be a two-edged sword. Even if common carp can significantly affect zebra mussel density, reduced zebra mussel density may be accompanied by an increase in the number of common carp. Any increase in numbers of common carp would be an unwelcome turn of events to most fisheries managers in North America. Common carp have been blamed for reductions in numbers of other species deemed desirable by humans. Common carp prey on eggs of preferred species and alter habitats through their effect on substrates and submersed aquatic vegetation. A worst case scenario of increasing common carp numbers but little change in zebra mussel density is also possible given the tremendous fecundity of zebra mussels (e.g., Garton and Haag 1993).

Here's a link to the documentation: http://www.sgnis.org/publicat/papers/tucker3.pdf

testing

I just spent 9 years in Ohio, where the zebra mussels are pervasive throughout Lake Erie and have infested many of the inland lakes. From what I saw up there, though the mussels were a PITA, they also had some benefits. I was told that Lake Erie was a murky mess for many years, but the mussels cleared the water up significantly, allowing plant life to florish and providing new breeding habitat for many fish. I don't recall hearing of carp eating the mussels, but gaspergou (they call them sheepshead), do eat some of them. As far as the shad population crashing, that did not seem to be the case. They have threadfin & gizzard shad as a primary forage base in their lakes and the fisheries seemed rather healthy. I mainly fished for muskie and steelhead trout while stuck up there and both had plenty of forage to maintain their respective fisheries.

Who wants crystal clear lakes anyways?
I prefer to fish in a stained/muddy lake over a clear one any day of the week.

For cats, with the possible exception of shovelheads, I can't say I blame you. I think an angler's preference for clarity depends somewhat on the target species.

Tight lines!!

wow..hard to believe !

Is that link a virus or just spam?

how do mussels make the water clear?

They filter the water which removes phytoplankton. Phytoplankton is what makes the water green.

thanks!

Zebra mussels change a lakes whole eco-system -- they filter HUGE amounts water REMOVING small phytoplankton that juvenile fish fry also rely on.

In already sterile lakes (like found in Austin/Belton area) they even further sterilize them, in turbid lakes like on the Red, Trinity,Sulphur watersheds, they won't make quite as much of an impact. A current study being done right now is the affect that catfish have on distributing Zebra mussels -- its been found that channel cat and blue cat ingest Zebra mussels and do NOT digest them - thereby spreading them throghout a lake system.

I fish a power plant lake heavily infested with Zebra mussels -- it seems that the drum population has exploded, but that the inland silverside population has crashed (commonly called ghost minnows) Its still too early to tell yet how that lake will rebalance -- Zebra veligers do provide SOME benefit to juevenile fish as they become part of the food chain till they drop to the bottom.

Zebra mussels were carried from the Great Lakes PRIMARILY by MIGRATING double breasted comorants as the PRIMARY cause of spread, other waterbirds to a lesser extent --

Zebra mussels are here to stay -- only the spread can be slowed.

You can't be serious. If that was true they would be in almost every lake in the country. When in fact they are in rivers where barge traffic is present.

http://www.macalester.edu/environmentals...ibution2005.jpg

Hmmm haven't seen any barge traffic on Texas rivers or lakes YET - In Oklahoma the spread follows migration patterns along the Arkansas basin- from there hopping OVER dams to off stem lakes -- just about every lake in Oklahoma is now infested --

Those veligers are good at crossing dry land -

Texoma first reported, then Lavon, and I would expect all Texas lakes to follow in the next five years as those barges run up the bar ditches.

There are a number of vectors -- that much is agreed.

The reason they are in Texas is because of being attached to trailers or in the water that gets left in the boat. To say Cormorants are the primary reason, or one of the major causes for their spread is crazy.

This is the most up to date map. Yep looks like they are in every lake in Oklahoma. They may be in one lake off of the Arkansas River but other than that they are only in the River.

http://www.aquaticnuisance.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/current_zm_qm_map_plain1.jpg

It is only a matter of time before they go all the way to the Gulf. Another problem will be them pumping water into Richland Chambers from the Trinity and back up to Eagle Mountain.

Just to update your info -- they are now found in the Neosho watershed, Arkansas watershed, Canadian watershed - this includes just about every inland lake in the state and downstream -- just check ODWC's website for accurate info.

The ORIGINAL source of spread from Great Lakes skipping over a major portion in between is up for scientific debate, its a traveling public to some extent -- as said (and that includes trailering boats) there are a number of vectors.

And yes they will be in every lake downstream to the gulf sooner rather than later.

Europe has been dealing with Zebra infestations for over eighty years now -- they have some good research about what changes happened in their waters.

why would u not want the water to clear up some?

The clearer the water the less food you have available for fish that are near the bottom of the food chain like your young fish and shad.

A little clearer is ok(depending on the situation) but if it clears a lot you will see a drop in the amount of fish.

learn something new everyday!

Lake Amistad is usually crystal clear. It seems to have PLENTY of forage as evidenced by the healthy catches it yields. What gives?

Well, I was up on Texoma for a while today got out of the boat and walked the shoreline in a few places. The lake is down quite a bit of course. There were thousands upon thousands of zebra muscle shells attached to every rock/branch/whatever you kicked over in one spot.At another they were not quite so numerous. But geez...we got a problem brewing .

You know I never thought about this before but you can be sure that in the future I'll be move carefull.

Fished texoma this week throw a jig or anyting on the bottom and hook a limb you will find zebra muscles on it attached. They are there already bad.

I wouldn't be surprised in 10 years that zebra muscles actually improve texoma by allowing more plants to grow. I'm not a biologist, but I know that hydrilla is not a native species either and yet bass fishermen love the hell out of the green monster. Lake tyler's fishing seems to only be getting better as the water gets clearer by the hydrilla. I think as new plants grow in number the a natural offset in the level of nutrients in the water therefor plankton will compete with plants and larger volumes of plankton will be able to grow because of the greater light penetration. It might 10-30 years, but when you start to see numbers of plants around increase you'll see the sight based fish, a.k.a. bass and striper population boom. More little fish will be able to survive longer, not just the shiners, crayfish and bugs too.