Jk. Tucker et al., PREDATION ON ZEBRA MUSSELS (DREISSENA-POLYMORPHA) BY COMMON CARP (CYPRINUS-CARPIO), Journal of freshwater ecology, 11(3), 1996, pp. 363-372
We examined the gut contents of 31 common carp (Cyprinus carpio) colle
cted at Mississippi River Mile 217 in August 1995 for evidence of pred
ation on zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). We found between 1 and
407 zebra mussel beaks in 83.9% of the fish we examined. For all fish
examined, common carp contained 118.2 beaks per fish or about 59 zebra
mussels per fish. The survey did not indicate that larger fish consum
ed more zebra mussels than smaller fish. Estimated valve length for ze
bra mussels consumed ranged from 1.48 to 42.52 mm with a mean 11.79 mm
(SE = 0.10 mm). We found that larger fish tended to prey on larger ze
bra mussels than did smaller fish. The general size range of zebra mus
sels consumed by common carp overlapped the upper portion of the size
range of young-of-the-year zebra mussels living at the site and the lo
wer portion of the size range of older zebra mussels living at the sit
e.