5 replies to this topic

[mattknepley]

I find it interesting to check out what just is in frozen foods I'm about to feed my fishes. Not that I can ever identify anything, but it's interesting to note critters in there that aren't what the stuff on the label is, and whether or not the fish go after it with equal gusto. I was thawing out a cube of Mysis last night, and noticed one beefy lookin' shrimp. It took no time at all to realize it was a tiny fish. That was a new one for me. It was ~1/2" long, and at first I figured Gambusia. But it looked "beefier" than a similar-sized Gambusia would be. Looking more closely, immediately preceding the caudal fin was a series of dark(ish) vertical bars. This fish was far too tiny to have any bones to be that big. Turns out this fish looks an awful lot like the illustration for a male Pygmy Killifish in Peterson's. (Except for the fact it was mysis-white from being frozen, and I didn't notice a caudal spot.)

Is it likely, or even possible, that's what it was? (It'd be a lifer for me!) Any other weird stuff you folks have had show up in your frozens?

[littlen]

I've seen many little flatfish and marine-sculpin/sea robin-y looking fish mixed in as obvious by-catch in boxes of smelt while prepping food for animals at the aquariums I've worked at.

[Doug_Dame]

I'm not surprised about some amount of by-catch included ... these are after all quite small critters ... but mysids are salt-water and pygmy killies (Leptolucia ommata) are strictly freshwater AFAIK, I've never seen or heard of any in brackish water.

 

Fundulus similis (longnose killie) have distinct thin black vertical bars even at a tiny size, that'd seem like a more likely candidate to me. But similis would have bars from end to end, and "beefy" would not be part of the normal description. Ditto for F. confluentus (marsh killie), although those prefer brackish to fully salty water.

 

Small Cyp. variegatus (so-called sheepshead "minnow") also can have well-defined dark markings on the rear section, although they look usually more like spikes than true bars. And that is a chunkier fish.

 

'Spose if you had a photo you'd have posted it. 

[mattknepley]

Thanks, guys.

I don't know how a lot of foods are cultured, including mysis. (I thought mysis was a species, but apparently it's a life-stage.) So I was wondering about the possibilities of what species might even be in there. Thought about trying to take a picture of it, but Blaylock and Co would never let me hear the end of it!

[littlen]

Not to throw a wrench in the conversation, but Piscine Energetics, which is the biggest supplier of mysis that I know of, harvests freshwater mysis from Canadian lakes.  The shrimp are invasive, yadda yadda ya...(scroll down on the link provided to watch a quick video).  The point I'm getting at is that there are more species options possible since your source was FW.  (Matt, did you happen to use P.E. Mysis?).  Now you'll just have to look up what other small or juvenile species it could have been from that region.

 

https://www.mysis.com/about-us/

[mattknepley]

It wasn't PE, but rather Omega One. After looking at P.E.'s website I would like to give 'em a try. None of the dealers in SC are terribly close, but none too far that it isn't feasible I might get that way.