Mytella strigata

About Mytella strigata  :

• It is a moderately large and symmetrical shelled mussel.
• It is generally observed in the middle intertidal and subtidal waters of estuaries and near coastal environments.
• These mussels attach themselves to surfaces using byssus threads.
• Appearance: 

• Individual mussels have a diversity of external colour schemes from black, dark bluish, brown, grey, orange and (rarely) green
• The species can also have a range of external shell patterns from zig zags, spots or concentric bands.

• It can form dense clusters that colonise hard substrates or occupy epibenthic habitats, including other mussel species. 
• It is usually present on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of tropical South and Central America.
• It has spread to Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, the Gulf of Thailand, west coast of India and the south-eastern United States.
• Threats: These mussels spread like a carpet over the river bottoms and thus preventing prawns from grazing or burying themselves in the sediment.