Zebra mussels are very diligent and rapidly appearing to expand their regions, inadvertently causing problems. A Zebra mussel can, in fact, change the environment around them, as stated by the North Texas Municipal’s Water District (NTMWD) on problems in Lake Texoma pump system troubles. They attach themselves to any hard surface, and that includes propellers, boat bottoms, pipes, rocks, and any other hard surface in the water.

These mussels are named for their striped design on their outer shells and originated from Europe. From there, they spread, by human manufacturing, through drainage systems. The spread was rapid and first noticed in 1988, discovered in the Great Lakes of America and Canada boundaries. By 2009, they were spotted in 20 other states across the United States.

These mussels tend to clog water pipes and drainage and cause irreparable damage to the lines, and so, the United States are currently trying to maintain the problem by, with caution, moving them out of the lines and into a more secure, and less used, water environment. These little mussels naturally filter the waters from phytoplankton and other small particles, again causing an environmental problem for other fish in the region.
These mussels usually are around the size of your figure nail, but are able to grow, by adulthood, to up to two inches in stature and live to 4 to 5 years in fresh water. They are mostly found in depths of 6 to 24 feet and begin to reproduce within two years of age. They can reproduce, somewhere between, 30,000 and 1 million eggs per year.

In other studies of these mussels, making this even more fascinating is that out of the female mussels, only around two percent of them reach adulthood. This makes them even more extraordinary to study and make the spread even more surprising, so investigating and learning about them is even more interesting.