3. Results
The maintenance of live vent mussels in our laboratory has
prompted us to investigate the physiology of B. azoricus under aquarium
conditions. Thus, health-related biological indicators were assessed
during long term experimental acclimatization. Gill tissues
were taken from freshly collected animals immediately after deep-sea
retrieval; therefore, bacterial detection corresponds to natural
abundance of endosymbionts. After 2–3 weeks of acclimatization in
plain sea water aquaria the density of bacterial symbionts was reduced
(Fig. 1). However, individual variations may have accounted for
differences observed during the FISH experiments. In some cases,
methanotrophic bacteriawere still seen up to 4 weeks in mussels kept
in plain sea water and at atmospheric pressure (Fig. 1B, iv).