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Blue Jellyfish at City Pets.. can I have one? (1 Viewer)

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Does anyone here care for Jellyfish? WHat type of tank setup do you need? What do you feed them? They had some beautiful blue ones at City Pets and wish i could of had them. Are the survival rates high? Is it worth it? :) THanks!!
 
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I saw those about ten minutes ago. When I went to the Aquarium in New Orleans. (If I can remember corretly because it was a fraternity formal and I left the aqaurium to go back to Bourben Street.) Back to the story...
They had a huge exhibit on jelly fish. They said not to try them at home arquarium unless you are an expert. To keep them you need a round aquarium, no corners and the flow has to go circularly through the tank. Jelly fish can not bump into corners. Here is what to imagine a circle with flat glass or back in front of the circle and behind the circle with the flow coming from the top creating a circular motion. I would be afraid of the jelly fish stinging your corals, but for all we know since you know longer take full tank photos that won't be a problem in your hair algae tank. :D
They won't last in your tank I promise. If I had the cash a blue jelly fish aqaurium with only actinic lighing in a proper tank behind a bar would make the ultitmate bachelor pad. :)
 

Kyle

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I also saw these at City Pets and I did ask about them. Apparently, they are reef safe. This is really hard to believe and I know they try and feed you full of all kinds of crap to make the sale but this is what he said. He did say that he has not had a customer that has been successful with them yet. They will not last more than a few days, unless you have a tank designed for them. Tcarlson is right about the corners.
 
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HMMM!!! great info T. Can it be a cylinder or does it have to be a bowl shape tank? I dont think it would matter. I do know that I saw this at the Aquarium Restaurant. They had two bowl shaped jellyfish tanks and they were feeding on brine shrimp or something. I really do like these fish.. maybe I should give it a shot.. but not in my tank. Would have to custom make one. Oh and like you said.. I dont thikn they are reef safe either.. that defeats the purpose of a cylinder tank. and other fish zooming by and hitting them
 
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A cylinder is like a washing machine, you would have to have something a the top or bottem creating the circulation. The tanks I am describing are like a dryer but instead of the tank spinning the water circulation creates the spin. I think the "dryer" style jelly fish tank like they had in New Orleans would be easier to create the circulation plus cylnders are difficult to make and expensive. Jelly fish "Reefsafe" :lol: Jelly fish start out as polyps then they move into the medusa stage where they become the sexually mature adult that you recognize. They're close cousins to anenomes which are much less mobile. They have nemocysts to catch they're prey just like a anenome. Could you imagine a anenome swiming around your corals 24/7? Reef safe? I doubt it.
 
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Guest

Thanks T. Here is some more info and you are right about the dryer effect.

http://www.masla.com/invert/jellyfishpets.html

Since jellyfish are physically delicate, are prone to flow with the current, are suspended by the current, and it's that current that brings them their food, their tank has to be specially designed to meet all those needs. The tank is called a Kreisel.

A Kreisels design is one in which there are uniquely designed inlets and outlets for the water, as opposed to a single inlet and outlet for water. It has to be introduced in so that it is a gentle tumbling type flow and keeps the jellyfish suspended. It has to be drawn out in a similar manner that it does not 'suck' the jellies into the filter system. The basic idea I think of is similar, in some ways, to your clothers dryer. Water ( as opposed to hot air in the dryer ) is introduced around a perforated or specially screened cylinder, and it causes that water to gently circulate its inhabitants. Likewise the water leaving the kreisel needs to exit in a manner that does not take the jellies with it.

Aside from the design of the jellyfish tank is its filtration. This type of filter is very similar to a coral reef tanks. It should involve surface skimming, mechanical and chemical filtration, as well as, a effecient biological filter. It would also be a good idea to incorporate a protien skimmer too. Overall water quality is paramount !

In addition to the tank and its filtration, jellyfish require cold water. Since they live in waters that range from 55 to 65 degrees you WILL need a refrigeration unit.

Ok, so now you have the jellyfish, the tank with its special design, and have incorporated the proper filter system and chiller unit....what are you going to feed the jellyfish ?

In nature, jellyfish ( Aurelia species for the sake of this article ) feed on plankton. Plankton of a certain size range. Did I mention LIVE plankton ? Where are you going to get plankton ? Fortunately brine shrimp can be the substitute for plankton ( although its a poorly nutritious substitute, but there are ways to enrich them ) as it is easily obtained and raised. As for the size issue, I understand its best to feed 24 to 48 hour old baby brine shrimp. Now, I don't know of many petshops that sell baby brine shrimp so you WILL need to plan on raising it yourself. Did I also mention that the jellyfish require MULTIPLE feedings on a DAILY basis ?

One other thing to mention, lighting. Since jellyfish ( Aurelia ) dont require light, the only illumination needed for the tank is so that you can see the jellyfish. This is a good thing as it minimizes the number of times you have to place your hand into that tank with COLD water and those creatures who sting < s >.
 
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this guy actually has it in his reef tank:

I've had a Cassiopeia sp. jellyfish (2") in my 80 gal. reef for a month
or so, and yesterday I noticed dozend of very small (1mm) bown jellyfish
swimming about the surface of the tank. This was just after I'd done a bit
'o cleaning, stirring up some detrius. I don't know how long they'd been
lurking there, but I adjusted the water flow so they wouldn't be washed
right into the overflow, but by today the corals and other inhabitants had
eaten most of them, and some were, I'm sure, filtered away. Does anyone have
any experience with these things? I've never raised jellyfish before...
do you have any advice on what I should do with the ones still alive? The
only fish in the tank are 2 mandarins, who seem to ignore them, although I've
watched a few drift into corals and be eaten. The adult(?) Cassiopeia
spends most of its time on the bottom on its back, pumping water past its
tentacles and photosynthesizing, but the little buggers seem to swim around
much more, and get themselves killed.
 
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Glad I am not the only one to liken the jelly fish tank to a dryer. I believe when I was at the New Orelans aqaurium they had some photosynthic jelly fish. Also not all jelly fish require cold temps, when I went snorkling on the keys there were these tiny jelly fish that didn't have stinging tentacles that were fun to shove in peoples snorkling nozzels. When I grow up and become an evil villan like in a James Bond movie, I'll definetly have a jelly fish tank and some sharks with lasers on their freaking heads.
 
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Yea I was just reading about other jellies. That is good news that they dont all need cold temps. I am still interested in possibly keeping these. Here is more great info:

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/r_toonen_051798.html

WHAT SORT OF TANK SETUP DO I NEED?

It depends on the species which you intend to keep.

For Cassiopeia, you don't really need anything special. A large, well lit aquarium without a filter (but with an air-driven or gentle pump-driven water flow) seems to work just fine.

The medusae of Aurelia, on the other hand, are large and graceful attractions, but like all pelagic jellies, are built for the open sea, and are therefor poorly adapted to life in an aquarium.

There are many gelatinous species that are simply too fragile to ever be practical occupants in home aquaria, but many species are hardy enough that they can be easily maintained in an aquarium if it is specifically set up for them.

There are basically 3 designs that you can try depending on how much time and money you have to dedicate to your setup, how large the animals are, and how sensitive are the species you plan to culture. I will discuss all three of them in only brief detail here (we don't have time to get into great detail).

The first two are simple and cheap, but also pretty hard on the animals -- if you insist on trying to keep sensitive species, you should skip directly to the third option.

The first method is to use a simple hexagonal tank in which you set a large sponge filter (the larger the filter, the more diffuse the suction of flow through it) with an undergravel uplift tube covering the airline and the rising bubbles (if bubbles escape they can easily get into the swimming bell of the medusae and damage them or trap them on the surface).

The plastic uplift tube should end slightly above the water surface so that any water moved up the tube by the bubbles is dropped back into the tank, breaking the surface tension and aerating the tank. This will also help to push any jellies on the surface back down into the water column.

By running bubbles up the tube at the appropriate speed (a few per second) you should get very gentle turnover in the tank, but not run the risk of sucking all your jellies into the filter. I maintained a tank like this with a healthy tropical hydromedusa culture for about 3 years.

In the past, when I set up a jelly tank, I would simply use a very diffuse flow-through system to keep the medusae in suspension. One simple way to do this is to use a small canister filter to move water from one end of the aquarium to the other.

To do this you would set a spray bar across one edge of a large aquarium (say the left side) aimed toward the glass, and the intake at the other end of the tank (in this case, the right).

Then both sides of the tank would be sealed off from the central portion by hot-gluing a section of fiberglass mosquito mesh across the aquarium about 6-10 inches (depending on the strength of your filter) from each end of the tank (the more powerful filter you get, the more space you'll have to cut off each end of the aquarium.

Obviously, if you're going to "waste" 12-20 inches of your aquarium length, it had better be a long tank, so keep that in mind when the urge to put a large filter on your tank strikes you (I used a Fluval 103 pump on a 55 G tank - I have used tanks as small as 27 G, but wouldn't try to go much smaller than that).

The purpose of the mosquito mesh is to allow for undisturbed flow from the intake to the spray bar, but simultaneously prevent areas of high flow or suction that are likely to trap or damage the medusae.

The jellies can then be kept in the central portion of the tank because the flow through the mosquito netting is so diffuse that the medusae which contact it can easily swim away of their own accord.

There is also no reason that you couldn't keep other animals (that are stronger swimmers - such as seahorses, for example) on the ends of the tank, because any Artemia which escaped through the mesh would simply become food for either the jellies in the central portion or the animals on the ends of the tank.

In that way you could set up a very interesting display with smaller fishes on the ends of the aquarium and the medusae in the center, but keep in mind that you have a VERY small filter on the tank and need to keep the bioload down to maintain water quality!

This is basically the technique I and others have used to keep jellyfish alive for research purposes, but those tanks are almost always flow-through, so there was no need for the recirculating filter (natural sea water was simply pumped into one end of the tank, and drained back into the ocean at the other).

The final method is the most complicated and expensive, but also the most likely to succeed of all. You could build or buy a special tank designed to house your jellies in suspension at all times (called a kreisel).

These large circular tanks, which institutions like the Monterey Bay Aquarium use to keep their gelatinous zooplankton, are basically a large ring sealed between 2 flat panes of glass.

The ring has an opening along one side where water is piped through a thin tube slowly back into the tank, and a small overflow that allows excess water to dribble over the edge to a reservoir at the bottom.

A small pump, basically similar to a dosing pump, is used to deliver water from the reservoir back into the tank.

This constant flow of water, directed along the wall of the ring, causes a swirling current in the tank which forces the animals towards the center of the tank, and prevents them from either settling out of the water column or being trapped by the water movement.

This is a serious undertaking (you'll have to specially order or design and build your own tank if you intend to try this - although Dane Tullock was talking about posting a DIY design for a pseudokreisel sometime soon), and will probably not be a common sight in home displays.

There are many other methods that have been successfully used to maintain jellies, but I'm going to quit there :)
 
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Using my amazing computer imaging skills, I have drawn a jellyfish tank for your viewing pleasure.

jellyfish_tank.jpg


Simple design. I would use a tank that is not very long, maybe a 58, and just add in the acrylic plates. The return should be a spray bar, running the width of the tank, with lots of holes, pointing down. This will create a circular motion in the tank, keeping the jellies(which are plankton) in the water column. They will eat nauplii, enriched live adult brine, or cyclop-eeze. The tank bottom should be bare, allowing for easier cleaning and less detritus buildup. Jellies will need lots of food in the water, so a good skimmer and large bio-filter is needed. HTH.
 
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tcarlson said:
When I grow up and become an evil villan like in a James Bond movie, I'll definetly have a jelly fish tank and some sharks with lasers on their freaking heads.
Be careful not to become too evil or your hair just my fall out.
 
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THanks for the picture fishinaggie. I can see a visual. I would rather have a cylinder type tank and swirl the water around instead of a dryer style. That will still force the jellies into the middle of the tank. Do you happen to know if those purple jellies can reproduce in a home tank? I was reading some info and they say that some jellies reproduce by laying eggs in the sand.. not sure what species that was. That is why I was thinking if I should go barebottom or not. I still need to read further into this before I create a new project.
 
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