All Fishes ⇒ Bagridae ⇒ The genus Mystus

Hop to next section Summary of mystus
Pronounced miss tuss
Etymology The generic name is probably derived from the Latin mystax, meaning moustache, in reference to the long barbels. It was first used by Scopoli in 1777 making it a very old genus that has included many catfishes from throughout the world at one time or another.
Identification Fishes of the genus Mystus Scopoli are small to medium-sized bagrid catfishes occurring in South Asia. Roberts (1994) recognized Mystus to have an elongate cranial fontanel reaching up to the base of the occipital process, long maxillary barbel, very long adipose fin, 11–30 gill rakers on the first gill arch and 37–46 total vertebrae, about equally divided between abdominal and caudal regions. He included only eight species under the genus. Mo (1991) characterized the genus to have a thin needle-like first infraorbital, twisted and thickened metapterygoid loosely attached to the quadrate by means of ligament or a small extent of cartilage. Jayaram & Sanyal (2003) and Ferraris (2007) respectively listed 44 and 33 species of Mystus as valid.
Feeding Easily adapts to a wide variety of frozen and prepared food in the aquarium. May eat very small fish.
Size Smallest 48mm, largest 460mm, average 175mm, most commonly 150mm. All SL.
Species There are 52 "species" in the database
Keepers 2 species (3.8%) are being kept by registered keepers
New spp. / time
1750 1770 1790 1810 1830 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010 
Distribution

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Hop to next section Most Kept Species
1.
Mystus aff. gulioMystus aff. gulio
(50%)
2.
Mystus bimaculatusMystus bimaculatus
(50%)
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