Mussels reproduce naturally in our ponds and dams. We harvest them over summer when the water is warm by feeling for them with our hands. Mussels bury themselves in the mud with their valves upright to take in and spit out the water they filter. As you run your hand along the dam bottom you feel the raised smooth shell of the mussels. We just pluck them out and place in a hessian bag. A normal harvest is 2000-10,000 mussels. A harvest may also be assisted by dropping the water level in the dam to make access easier.
Mussels are harvested then taken to the packaging shed and sorted on the sorting table. They are sorted into sizes in batches of 500.
We sort and grade our mussels in the packing facility then store them in trays within our ponds. We have two sorts of trays, stationary trays that are on the floor of the pond. These trays are in our static water level, fish broodstock ponds. These plastic mesh trays are 2.5 metres long by 800 mm wide.
The other type of trays we have are suspended trays. These trays are 3 metres long by 800 mm wide and sets of 2 are suspended 500 mm below the surface under polly pipe pontoons. Floating trays are located is our sediment ponds and storage dams. These ponds and dams fluctuate in water levels but the floating cages just move up and down with those fluctuations.
From the trays we scoop them out as required for our weekly orders. Currently we only have storage trays for 10,000 mussels. Consequently we regularly sell out over winter, and we do not start harvesting/restocking our trays till mid-late September when the water starts warming up again.
When required, mussels are easily scooped from the holding trays into shopping baskets then transferred to the packing shed for counting. Mussels are emptied onto a sloping, stainless steel table and counted into batches of 10. When we get 10 piles of 10, we add 3 which the customer receives free of charge. This additional 3% allows for any losses in transport.
Each batch of 10 x 10 + 3 = 103 is placed into a prawn crate.
The mussels are then washed in fresh water to clean their shells and wash off any mud and crud.
Each tray of 100 mussels is then place into a recirculating aquaculture tank for storage until ready for pack and despatch to the customer.
Australian Silver Perch and Freshwater Mussel Hatchery only sells bulk loads of freshwater mussels. The minimum purchase is 100 mussels. 200 mussels can fit in a hessian bag.
Each batch is packaged into a hessian bag. The hessian bag keeps the mussels together and limits them rattling around in transit.
We then place the hessian bag in a foam polystyrene box. The foam box is an esky, we add a twin gel pack that is wrapped in bubble wrap. This keeps the mussels cool in transit. The foam box is sealed, this retains the moisture in the box and the mussels are good for around 4 days in transit during summer and 7 days in winter. We despatch by Star Track Express and all of NSW/Qld/Vic/SA can be delivered within this time frame.
If you only order 100 or 200 mussels then we will pack the box with wood wool to stop the mussels rattling around in the box. The hessian bag keeps all the mussels together helping them to not smash against each other. We mark the boxes fragile but once in transit we have no control, if the box gets broken the hessian sack will ensure no mussels are lost.
We can fit up to two hessian bags of mussels in the one foam box. Please be warned; a foam box with 400 mussels weighs 20kgs. When we fill a box with 400 mussels no other packaging is required.
When you order freshwater mussels you get a mixture of sizes, small ones up to large ones. The large ones are mature ready to breed right away. Mussels are long lived animals and most expect they live for 30 years plus. The trouble is that you do not know how old the large ones are, as once they reach a large size they don’t grow in size any more, they could be 30 years old and could die of old age next year or they could be only 20 years old and have another 10 years ahead of them ( who knows???).
On the other hand the small ones we know are young and have another 20-30 years ahead of them as breeding stock. These small ones will survive and be your breeding stock for the next 20 years plus so very valuable to you in the long run.
Having large ones ensures you have breeding stock immediately. Having small ones ensures you have breeding stock for the next 20 years plus.
Having small ones ensured you have breeding stock for the next 20-30 years. The mussels you are buying are the base broodstock and reproduction is the key to ongoing excellent water quality.
The foam box is sealed and addressed to our customer. We deliver the box to Star Track Express in Newcastle 2300 and it leaves that depot at 6 pm that evening. For most east coast major towns its overnight or 2 days (NSW, Vic, Qld). Places like South Australia can be up to 4 days.
We typically despatch on a Monday and you get Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday with an extra day Friday up our sleeve if Star Track has a whoopsie.
You can check your delivery time online at : https://startrack.com.au/
Just go to “Calculate transit time”
Sender location is Newcastle NSW 2300
Put in your suburb
Click “Express”
Change “Arrival Date” to “Despatch Date”
Click on the date and put in a Monday
Hit “Get a transit time” and see how long they recon it will take to get to you. Star track is pretty good, many times it will say 2 days but you actually get it in one. Some areas are 4 days but that is no problem, the mussels are good for a week in the box (so long as not a heat wave).
Once you receive you mussels, just open the box, remove the hessian sack. Open the sack up and tip your mussels into your dam or pond. Mussels have a hard thick shell that protects them from thermal sock so no acclamation required like you would for fish. That said if it’s the heart of summer and your water is super-hot, or winter and freezing cold then just dip your sack in the dam first and then wait 2 minutes before you release.
Your mussels have a foot that they will use to move around the dam. Wherever you release them is probably not where they will stay, that said some take a week or more before they get active. Best to release them in at least 600 mm of water and tip them out so they are beside each other rather than in a pile on top of each other.
Good luck with your mussels
Cheers
Rob