Mysis or Mysid?

[NanaReefer]

Are they one in the same? Every time I Google Mysis, Mysid comes up.

 

[pugcrush]

Are they one in the same? Every time I Google Mysis, Mysid comes up.

Mysid is what breeds in our tanks. Mysis is a freshwater species from what I understand.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

This is one of the most mixed up and confused group of critter names evah!

The name Mysid, is just a common name. There is no taxonomic label of Mysid.

Mysis is a legit scientific genus and belongs to the freshwater variety. The marine counterpart is a Americamysis sp. Usually the one found in our aquariums, the ones often cultured and used in testing are the A. Bahia and another I can't remember at the moment.

The saltwater variety USED to have a different genus name and that adds to the confusion. I still see it labelled incorrectly everywhere as Mysidopsis sp., but that is now an invalid taxonomic label.


So......

............ Saltwater...... Freshwater
Family: Mysidae........ Mysidae
Genus: Mysis sp......... Americamysis sp

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Looked it up. The other common shrimp we run into in our hobby is A. almyra. So that's, Americamysis bahia and Americamysis almyra.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Might as well share some of the references. :) The unaccepted Mysidopsis label background. ---> Old Scientific Name <---.

 

[NanaReefer]

So there are FW Mysis and SW Mysis?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

There are freshwater Mysis sp. and there are saltwater Americamysis sp. There is no saltwater Mysis sp.

More specifically....
The freshwater variety, like is found in the product "PE Mysis" are Mysis diluviana.
The two common saltwater varieties we see are Americamysis bahia and Americamysis almyra.

The only one that should rightfully be called a Mysis is the Mysis species (that's the FW ones).

Both the freshwater and saltwater variety can be called Mysids as a common name, as they both belong to the family Mysidae.

 

[NanaReefer]

Thank you! [emoji1]