BROKEN RAYS MUSSEL — with built-in Fishing lure
See the fish that the arrow os pointing to - it’s NOT a fish, it’s tissue from the mussel that LOOKS like a fish…what’s the point of it? When real fish see the lure, they assume it’s a fish and since it is safe, figure they will be safe as well. When they come closer, the mussel blasts them with it’s offspring, which are parasitic and take up residence in their gills…more below.
In many respects these animals look like any other bivalve mollusc, but what sets them apart is the unusual extension of their fleshy mantle that grows beyond the confines of the protective shell valves to wave around in the water. This fleshy protuberance can look astoundingly like a small fish and this is no coincidence because this fishy appendage is actually a lure to draw fish near so they can be press-ganged into the mussel’s reproductive strategy.
The lure is so convincing, with ‘eyes’ and markings, that curiosity gets the better of small fish swimming by. Perhaps the fish see the lure as a potential mate, a shoal member or as an interloper to be chased from their territory. Regardless of the motivation, the fish edges closer and closer to the mussel to investigate the unusual looking ‘fish’. When it’s eye to eye with the lure, the mussel springs its trap and the little fish gets doused with the mollusc’s larvae, nasty-looking miniature versions of the adults, known as glochidia.
These larvae are parasitic and they get drawn under the fish’s gill plates where they latch onto the blood-rich tissues of the gills using a long adhesive hair and hooks on their tiny shell valves. Attached to their host, the larvae stimulate the development of a cyst which provides them with protection and nourishment for anywhere between 10 to 30 days.
Fact Source: http://scrubmuncher.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/scoundrels-1/
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