Pink Mucket - Life History

Life History

The pink mucket is a rounded, slightly elongate mussel with a thick, inflated, and smooth shell, which is usually yellow-brown in color. It can be found on the bottoms of various bodies of water, among gravel and cobble. It can be found in water one inch to five feet in depth. The mussel can live up to fifty years, but it rarely reaches this age now. The pink mucket has been a federally endangered species since the year 1976.

The pink mucket reproduces in a similar manner to most other freshwater mussels. It requires a stable and undisturbed habitat. The male releases sperm into the current, and the female siphons it into its gill chamber, where the eggs are then fertilized. Once the eggs have gone through this process, they mature into larvae called (glochidia) and are discharged into the water. The glochidium lodges in the gills of a host fish, such as black bass and walleye. After the larval mussel spends a few days to weeks attached to the host it becomes a juvenile mussel and drops to the substrate. The pink mucket spawns from August to September, and releases their glochidia the following year from May to June.