What are sea mussels?
Sea mussels belong to the Family Mytilidae. Features: The two-part shell is generally tear-drop shaped (rounded at one end and pointed at the other). Although thin, the shell is quite strong. Instead of gluing down one valve to a rock like oysters do, mussels attach themselves with byssus threads. Sea mussels are often found in colonies of a large number of individuals. Senhausi’s mussels (Musculista senhausii) are tiny mussels about 1cm long that live in colonies of thousands. They weave a nest out of byssus threads and mud. Date mussels (Lithophaga sp.) create a safe hiding place for themselves by drilling into dead coral and even concrete by rotating their shells and secreting an acid. What do they eat? Like most other bivalves, sea mussels are filter feeders. At high tide, they open their shells a little. They then generate a current of water through the shell and sieve out the food particles with enlarged gills. When the tide goes out, they clamp up their shells tightly to prevent
