#mytilidae

A mussel found on Western Australian and South Australian shorelines. Alive, the shells are purple with dark brown, almost black, bands, but fade to white after death.

AKA Modiola subtriangularis, Mytilus bilocularis, Mytilus nicobaricus Mytilus septulifer, Tichogonia bilocularis, Tichogonia kraussii and Tichogonia wiegmannii, and Box Mussel.

Widespread around Tropical Indo-Pacific cosatlines, and the East and West coastlines of Australia. Frequently found in areas of surf with strong water current, growing attached to rocks, dead corals or the underside of stones, sometimes in dense colonies, down to about 15m below sea level.

AKA the greenshell mussel, kuku, and kutai, Mytilus canaliculatus, canaliculus, durus, latus and tasmanicus.

An endemic New Zealand subtidal mussel, grown in huge quantities for the aquaculture industry. Most of the spat is collected from seaweed that washes up on Ninety Mile Beach on the north coast. This spatfall is highly variable - in some years none arrives at all.

In 2000 two companies that were promoting an extract of green-lipped mussel as a cancer cure were successfully prosecuted and fined. Only click on the green-lipped mussel tag below if you want some amazingly badly translated posts about their supposed antioxident properties.

AKA Hauea and Flea Mussel, Modiolus ater, Modiolus neozelanicus, and Mytilus ater.

A small mussel found around New Zealand and the Auckland Islands. Like other mussels, a filter feeding bivalve that are usually found in intertidal environments. One genus is found in freshwater, and one subfamily lives in the deep ocean.

That's a lot of mussels.

14/10/23 - Mytilidae sp.