The plan

I’m planning to put mussels under flow and assess differences in thread quality based on the flow. The rough current outline of the intended assay is we’ll put mussels onto little Lego platforms (see Matt George’s post on “How to collect byssal threads”) with mica, and then place mussels in a circular tank with a water pump. We’ll place them at different distances from the center, which in a circulating tank will have different flow velocities.

What I did today

Because Californianus lays threads that are easier to work with, I put three Californianus on lego platforms in a seawater flowthrough tray just to see if they’d lay threads within the small box I put them on, or if they’d reach outside of them.

I’ll check on them tomorrow and see if they laid threads.