Settlement for the mussel

Here you have one of the settlements of the mussel. It is also the playground for the local trout. The Freshwater Pearl Mussel is endangered and need special factors for surviving. Besides clean running water it needs the company of trout coming along. Small larvae from the mussel live on the gills of the trout until it drops itself down to the bottom of the river. There it digs and hide itself in the sand until it get seashells all around and it becomes a tiny little mussel. Sometimes the mussels stays all their life at the same place were they ones dropped themselves. Sometimes they goes with the flows down the river to a new bank. The mussel can become more than 100 years old!