dchisenh Posted June 12, 2003 Share Posted June 12, 2003 Hey Everyone, I noticed last night I have some jellyfish in my fish tank! Although they're probably just the medusae of some hydroids, they still look really neat. If I had a digital camera, I'd take some pictures, but unfortunately, I don't. X) I spend my money on my tanks and not on doo-da's and gizmos. But, if you're wondering what they look like, they're mostly clear with a tiny white speck in the middle and they rapidly pulse through the water column. They're about the size of a sesame seed, maybe a little bigger, and there were at least a dozen or so of them througout the course of the night in the tank. I'll be keeping my eye open for where they settle and devolop, but I thought it was kinda cool and I thought I'd share it with y'all. So, keep a look out on your tanks around the evening time, you never know what you might see. -Dan Link to comment
PufferGuy Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 cool! The only ones ive ever seen were at out LFS but they were dead on the bottom of the tank. Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 Hydroids? Yikes, they are pests. This came from Reef Central: Most hydroids reach levels of benign destructiveness if left alone in tanks. On the other hand.... Some of them seem to develop into real pests, and these don't seem to respond to any practical treatment, other than manual removal and control. It may be prudent to try to control them with some kalk paste (make a paste of kalkwasser powder about the consistency of toothpaste, zap in the microwave for about 30 sec, and squirt it on to the hydroid). Be very careful that the paste doesn't get on the coral or other animals it will fry them, too. However, this does seem to do well with the eradication of hydroids, on occasion. Link to comment
Acoustic Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 Cladonema jellyfish Image, courtesy of Mark Li, of a Cladonema species in an aquarium. These are small jellyfish that can swim, but which also fasten to the substrate. Unlike the Staurocladia mentioned above, they don't crawl much. Not much is known about their biology. In aquaria they probably feed on small copepods and particulate material in the water. They may be distinguished from Staurocladia by more developed gobular bell, their slightly larger size, and the shape of the tentacles. Link to comment
dchisenh Posted June 14, 2003 Author Share Posted June 14, 2003 They did look a lot like that Cladonema jelly, but I'm pretty sure they're just the medusae of hydroids. I don't think I have to worry about them reaching plague proportions in my tank, but I guess it can happen to some people. And, I must say that it was quite a sight. At first, I thought it was some sort of a worm or something, 'cause all I noticed was some odd movement in the water column, then I noticed it was pulsing. When I looked at it really closely, I could see that it was in fact a little jellyfish. I noticed the first one in the evening, and thought it was an isolated case. Then, later that night with just the actinic on, I noticed there were more in the main tank, about 6 or 7 of them in there. Later the next day I still noticed there were some lingering around in the water column. Haven't seen any lately, perhaps the canary wrasse, or shrimp, or something else made a little snack of them. All the corals are doing great and the fish are fine too, so nothing was stung during this event. I guess I must be doing something right with that tank....despite the hair algae. -Dan Link to comment
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