zebra mussels vs. Hydras
Posted by Devin McAndrews on April 12, 2006
Q: What effect does the zebra mussel have on the hydra?
Habitat: pond/lake
State: Ontario
Habitat: pond/lake
A: I can think of two effects - one negative and one positive.
1. Since Zebra Mussels seem to be increasing their populations to incredible numbers where they're found, their filtration of the water greatly reduces the amount of floating organisms that are available to other animals. I would imagine that hydra have fewer prey items to feed on.
2. But on the other side of the coin, all of those Zebra Mussel shells certainly must provide excellent places for hydra to attach.
I can easily believe that number 1 is a more important factor than number 2. To really understand how hydra are doing, one would have to know how hydra populations were faring before Zebra Mussel introduction and then again how they're faring after the Zebra Mussels became established. Hope this helps.
John Wiessinger ( April 13, 2006)