Where I left off

I anesthetized five mussels with 50 g/L of MgCl solution (400 ml seawater, 600 ml freshwater). They were all anesthetized after 24 hours, and they had fully recovered 24 hours after that. By recovered, I mean they closed when I picked them up (aka, they were alive and breathing/feeding).

I’m debating going down to a lower dosage to save money, but I’m not totally sure whether it would still work. Probably worth a try.

What I’m doing today

I’m putting the mussels in 50 g/L MgCl2 (hexahydrate) again to anesthetize, and I’m going to try to inject them with seawater. The needle is a 23GTW needle, maybe too big debating buying the smallest kind I can.

Labeled mussels: There is no mussel labeled number 1. Go figure.

  1. I injected the foot, poked a hole through the foot, monitor for health and threads.
  2. Injected the foot and the adductor, monitor for health and threads.
  3. Injected the foot, don’t think I perforated through. Monitor for health and threads
  4. and 6 I did not inject as a control

I will monitor all of them daily for health and thread production after, just in case I accidentally boosted or inhibited production with the injection. Might have to inject in the adductor to get to the hemolymph, not sure.

I also pulled the threads from the mussels, which in retrospect was probably a bad idea. I’ll just cut them in the future.

What I’ll do later

  • If the mussels are all healthy and laying threads post injection, then I’ll keep injecting in the foot, but with a smaller gauge syringe.

  • If the mussels that got injected into their foot are suffering, I’ll try the adductor instead and watch their health.

  • From what I’ve seen, people just inject 100 microliters, and I was definitely injecting more than that, so I’ll try to find a smaller syringe that can rock with microliters.

Good things

  • The foot was limp and fairly easy to pull out for injection in larger mussels, harder in smaller mussels.

  • Injection was possible, I guess?

Things to change

  • Smaller gauge needle
  • Buy my own MgCl
  • Look at injections in other bivalves, or how it was introduced. Getting it into the hemolymph seems to be the key.