Blue Catfish do eat Zebra Mussels

This Blue Catfish, caught on Lake Texoma, was full of Zebra Mussels.
Zebra Mussels do have a natural predator.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Lake Texoma
• Zebra Mussels

[kittengeek08]

I hope you get rid of your knife and cuttingboard and bucket too.You might spread more zebra mussell.

[Texomastriperguide]

@kittengeek08 Okaaaaaaaay. I don't really understand that comment but oh well.

[Texomastriperguide]

One out of a hundred cats I clean have mussels in them. Too many mussels for catfish to do any control on them. Zebra Mussels are an invasive species and cause lots of problems to lake where they show up. They reproduce in great numbers and will clock pipes, lower units on motors and cover the shore so you have to wear shoes to walk on them. They also filter water of plankton and will clear a lake of all the plankton. Stripers only eas Shad and Shad only eat plankton, so you can see the problem

[starshock01]

@jgrinspan1 I live in the new england area, and every once and a while I catch catfish that are quite literally loaded with zebra mussels, rarely do I catch bass with zebra mussels in the gut, and never do I see them in any other species. Seagulls actually will eat them and so will crows. Crows actually go a step further than seagulls and drop rocks on exposed mussels, than eat the soft insides. seagulls just chip them off rocks and swallow them which i can imagine is painful

[sethzky77]

zebra mussels are an invasive species aren't they?

[Sit1Haomarush]

Looks like fawnsfoot mussels to me. Not zebra.

[jgrinspan1]

@starshock01 makes me wonder. I've caught probably around 20 assorted catfish on texoma since my last post. Not one with mussels. Is everybody else still seeing mussels in the gut?

[superwhiz88]

why don't they release more blue cat into great lake to control the zebra mussels .. this will shoot two bird at the same time..

[starshock01]

@jgrinspan1 yes, they safely pass the mussels through, although larger mussels >2" may pose problems

[jgrinspan1]

My daughter caught one maybe half the size as the one in the video, also full of zebra mussels. From stomach to intestines. Do you think the catfish can excrete the zebra mussels safely or die trying?