Raising Mysis Shrimp

[Quantum Aquaria]

I've read various articles about this and some say that they won't survive and others say that the mysis shrimp breed like crazy in a refugium. I was thinking about getting some live mysis shrimp and putting it in my fuge to give my fish more variety diets. Has anyone tried this with success or do you have to set up one of those complex breeding systems.

[Brian Ward]

Mysis are freshwater shrimp, so putting them in your fuge might not go so well. I know the shop down in Richmond had a sea dragon for a while and had to fly in live mysis daily, so I would assume that it's very difficult.

[Chad]

The problem with raising mysis is that they are cannabilistic little buggers. I looked into it heavily but decided I didnt have the room for the setup.

 

Here is a decent PDF on culturing them http://www.mblaquaculture.com/assets/docs/MBL_AQ_Mysid_Generator.pdf (found on the mbl aquaculture site) the setup is relatively involved (as you know) and is labor intensive to separate juviniles as they grow out (more than a week apart means the small ones get dined on).

 

As far as fuge stocking goes, there are several species of both freshwater and saltwater mysis (PE mysis are freshwater), I have tried a couple of times to purchase saltwater mysis to stock my fuge for my seahorses (http://www.reed-store.com/shop.cfm/Mysid%2DShrimp/Mysid%2DShrimp/MYSID500/ and http://www.mblaquaculture.com/content/organisms/live_mysis_shrimp.php sell them) but have not had luck with them taking hold.

 

When it comes down to it, I think those that say they have large numbers of prolific mysis in their fuges actually have isopods that they are calling mysis.

[cabrego]

I don't know if it helps but I have a ton of mysis or mysid (shrimp not sure what the diff is)in all parts of my tank including, over flow, fuge, and especially behind my foam wall, the space behind he wall is like a fuge in it self. I am not sure how they got there, or what I am doing to breed them ...

[Quantum Aquaria]

I don't know if it helps but I have a ton of mysis or mysid (shrimp not sure what the diff is)in all parts of my tank including, over flow, fuge, and especially behind my foam wall, the space behind he wall is like a fuge in it self. I am not sure how they got there, or what I am doing to breed them ...

 

interesting. it seems that most folks who try to breed them are unsuccessful, whereas the ones that don't intend to have them all over the place and no idea how they got them.

 

if you don't mind, perhaps i can swing by one day and take a look at your setup to see since you're not too far away from me

Edited April 5, 2010 by tekken

[L8 2 RISE]

Mysis are freshwater shrimp, so putting them in your fuge might not go so well. I know the shop down in Richmond had a sea dragon for a while and had to fly in live mysis daily, so I would assume that it's very difficult.

 

um, I think you might be confused with grass shrimp or something because mysis do live in salt water. As for whether or not they live in fresh as well, I'm not sure.

 

For raising them, there's a great article on seahorse.org (or something like that) about raising them, however that seems like far too much time and work for me. I just threw some into my fuge and tank and now have a small but growing population.

[CHUBAKAH]

A good read if anyone is interested: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2003/breeder.htm

 

I've been raising them successfully for about a year now by the thousands with about two or three other forms of pods.

[paul b]

Actually the name mysis shrimp is given to a bunch of similar looking shrimp, some fresh some salt.

[mogurnda]

Yep, there are many species of mysis, from both FW and SW. PE mysis are collected from FW lakes, by the way.

 

In principle, they are easy to raise because the females carry the brood in a pouch (why they are also called possum shrimp) until they are ready to fend for themselves. I had a thriving population in my seahorse tank, which was fed heavily, had a fuge and a lot of hiding spots, and only a few, very slow, predators. Since taking that tank down, it has been hard to get them going in the other tanks. Not sure why.

 

Inland Aquatics used to sell starter cultures of them.

[Glenn]

1) If I add some mysis to my fuge, are they going to decimate my pod population? or will they need to be fed separately (and not bother the pods)

 

2) Does anyone here have a starter culture that they would be willing to part with? free or nominal charge .. Tyson / McLean area? or maybe a SWAP at the next WAMAS meeting :-)))

[sen5241b]

I have tons of amphipods in my tank and especially my fuge. Some are a quarter inch long.

[cabrego]

interesting. it seems that most folks who try to breed them are unsuccessful, whereas the ones that don't intend to have them all over the place and no idea how they got them.

 

if you don't mind, perhaps i can swing by one day and take a look at your setup to see since you're not too far away from me

 

 

You are welcome to come by...let me know.

[Brian Ward]

um, I think you might be confused with grass shrimp or something because mysis do live in salt water. As for whether or not they live in fresh as well, I'm not sure.

 

For raising them, there's a great article on seahorse.org (or something like that) about raising them, however that seems like far too much time and work for me. I just threw some into my fuge and tank and now have a small but growing population.

 

My mistake. I was thinking specifically of PE Mysis which are freshwater. I remembered it as "mysis are freshwater shrimp" and that is not accurate. Thanks for correcting me.

[davelin315]

The term mysis is thrown around a lot, but I believe the appropriate designation is mysis are freshwater and mysid are saltwater, so Brian, you are correct.

 

As far as them being difficult to raise, I don't agree with that, but I do agree that people trying to culture them have a harder time than people who just have them. Those trying to culture them are usually trying to get them to breed and be easily extractable whereas those that are not trying to breed them have a much easier time. Mysids inhabit every single area of my tank and do not eat up the rest of the pods in my system. What I have found is that they will hide in the tiny nooks and crannies of the rock and will also swim freely along the walls and substrate as long as there's nothing there eating them up. They tend to breed the best in areas where detritus has built up, so if you vacuum regularly, you're probably taking out the frye. The easiest place to see where they are in my system is in my overflow. The overflow has a lot of settled detritus there and they thrive in those conditions. They live there along with large bristle worms that have crawled in and are stuck, gammarus amphipods, and various copepods, asterinas, isopods, colonista snails, origami nassarius snails, and limpets. When Sam needed some mysids for his cuttlefish, we siphoned out my overflow and he had literally thousands of mysids including many tiny ones. What I found out was that it took awhile for them to reestablish themselves in there and coincided with the detritus building up again.

 

I think what is happening in systems designed to breed them is that they're simply too clean and sterile - there's not enough food for them to eat and there aren't enough places for them to hide.

[mogurnda]

{Pulls "Invertebrate Zoology" off shelf}

Mysids are any of the large number of species in the order Mysidacea. "Pelagic and benthic species, mostly marine but a few found in lakes and caves." Mysis is a freshwater genus. Dunno if PE harvests Mysis or another genus.

 

As a taxonomic aside, despite their appearance, they are more closely related to amphipods and isopods than true shrimp, so I suppose we could class them as "pods."

[davelin315]

PE harvests freshwater mysis. On the back of the package it says they are harvested from coldwater lakes in Canada - funny how they are touted as such a great food source for marine aquariums yet they are freswhater! I feed them despite trying to avoid freshwater foods.

[gmubeach]

I want to try and raise these guys as well as copods in my refreguim. I need to get a small supply.. I currenlty have cheato and dragons breath...(thanks sam)

[Quantum Aquaria]

So I guess the general consensus is that it is possible and we have several members here that are currently cultivating them. Perhaps we can try to organize some sort of mysis swap or such.

[dbartco]

I think the there is a misunderstanding of the word "cultivating". Can you have what we call mysids (not the same as what we are feeding normally frozen) in our tank and have them respoduce and grow, sure. Can we get them to multiply at a rate where they can be daily harvested, probably not. They are canabalistic, and the large eat the small. Do some survive, sure. In pretty good numbers to sustain a madarin or two. But for enough to keep as more than an occasional snack, hardly.

[Chris-]

I would think that enough to keep a mandarin or two would be enough for me, lol.