Thread: Lake Perry Zebra mussles

How deep underwater do they live? Can they survive below the thermocline in a deep lake? I have always wondered if the corps couldn't help control the population with a system of raising and lowering the lake levels. For instance, if they normally only live above the thermocline in the water with higher oxygen content, then couldn't the corps draw the lake down extra low in the winter to kill the ones near shore, and then keep the lake up in the summer to suffocate the deep ones?

I'm sure they have probably tried that before somewhere... Maybe they can survive low levels of dissolved oxygen.

I also wondered if blue-green algae killed them, since it seems to be toxic to everything else.

Originally Posted by Fish Taxi

How deep underwater do they live? Can they survive below the thermocline in a deep lake? I have always wondered if the corps couldn't help control the population with a system of raising and lowering the lake levels. For instance, if they normally only live above the thermocline in the water with higher oxygen content, then couldn't the corps draw the lake down extra low in the winter to kill the ones near shore, and then keep the lake up in the summer to suffocate the deep ones?

I'm sure they have probably tried that before somewhere... Maybe they can survive low levels of dissolved oxygen.

I also wondered if blue-green algae killed them, since it seems to be toxic to everything else.

Fish Taxi,

Zebra mussels require oxygen so they will occur as deep in a lake where oxygen levels are sufficient. For those lakes that don't thermally stratify, zebra mussels will be found all the way to the bottom. Since it is impossible to completely kill zebra mussels with water level manipulations, it usually isn't feasible to attempt such dramatic water level fluctuations. Although water level fluctuations can kill millions and millions of zebra mussels in exposed areas, enough zebra mussels will remain just under the water line to quickly repopulate vacated areas.

Zebra mussels are selective in their feeding activities and do not consume blue-green algae. They can actually make conditions better for blue-green algae by removing other beneficial algae causing elevated blue-green algae densities.