I was raking out some leaves in my upstate NY pond when I came upon 3 mussels. The largest one is 4.5 " long about 2" wide and 1" thick. Anything to worry about ?? I removed them and put them in a culvert overflow creek. They are doing fine and moving around. What do I do ??

Do nothing. Don't sweat it. More than likely they, or their ancestors, came into to your pond by hitchhiking as a small parasite when the pond was stocked. They won't hurt anything and there is really nothing you can do about them.

Just curious. Did you stock any wild fish, or were all fish stocked as fingerlings from a hatchery?.

Also, mussels are an indication of healthy water. They help to filter out impurities.

All fish were stocked as fingerlings from a hatchery?. I do have some turtles that show up once in a while from the nearby creek.

Typically the immature stage of freshwater mussels rarely occurs in fingerling hatchery fish. The hatchery must have FW mussels in some of their rearing ponds. Interesting occurrence.

Bill, all of my fish came from hatcheries and I have mussels. OK, some came off a fish truck that I assume was straight from a hatchery. However, I have no idea what hatchery or what conditions were present at the hatchery.

If you're uncomfortable with the mussels, I bet adding a few RES would take care of them.