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upside down jelly fish care


jiriki76

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I'm seriously considering an upside down jelly fish for my BC29. Some sites say they are hard to care for.. some say they are really easy. They also say they need bright lights. I assume that means MH.

 

Anybody have some and can share their experiences?

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They're common in the Mangrove and Seagrass shallow waters down here in Florida. I almost ordered one for my Florida biotope tank but decided against it and heres why.

 

They are actually pretty easy to care for since they are photosynthetic and have a relatively weak sting. They do however need a special environment which will almost always limit you to only keeping these particular jelly's. They cannnot have rocks in the display with them and they cannot have exposed powerheads or other exposed plumbing intakes as they are quite delicate and will be sucked or torn apart. They also like a sandy bottom to rest upside down on (hence Upside Down Jellyfish) so you could do a few inches of sanf with some assorted sea grasses and Mangroves with low flow and they would be pretty happy.

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printerdown01

Normally I would yell and jump up and down with someone trying too keep jellies even upside downs in a reef tank. However, I have actually seen this one pulled off with success in the past. An LFS in the Bay Area: The Great Barrier Reef (which no longer exists), had a nano (a 10 or 12 gallon if memory serves me correctly) that had upside down jellies for a couple of years. It was an all in one system, with NO additional powerheads. This alone did limit was they were able to keep in the tank. They also created "arched" rock work which maximized the amount of sand. If I had to guess they probably still spent some time fishing the little things out from under the cave rockwork. The tank was beautiful though and the two jellies they kept made the LFS stand out in my mind for years! They also constantly dosed the tank with phyto for the jellies (I have read mixed reviews as to whether or not that is actually nessicary).

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  • 2 weeks later...
uglyamericanV1.5

the word on the street is that a major hurddle is that the tanks have to be cylinderic because they jellies will get stuck in corners....

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Printerdown-

 

Jellies are very cool creatures to watch that require very specialized tanks and care to keep. A typical jelly tank costs about $1,500 because it is a very specialized tank. A stock 14 gallon AIO is going to have a filtration system that will very quickly suck a jelly into the intake holes thus killing it.

 

Odds are high that one of three things account for said store's 'success'. (Least likely) a very rare case of jellies surviving in a stock AIO tank, (somewhat likely) the store did a major refit on the AIO to support a jelly, (most likely) the store kept replacing the jellyfish that died due to getting stuck in the rocks, stuck in a corner, sucked into an intake, blown to bits with new jellyfish and just didn't say anything.

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Upside down jellies are a whole different thing to care for than other jellyfish. They are much easier, possible to keep in a more "normal" reef tank, but as stated above do need a decent amount of sand (square footage, not depth). I looked into them as well and decided not to try them because of relatively short life spans. Do keep us posted how it goes if you get some, defintely doable if you really want them! I've seen some really beautiful ones just lately in some public aquariums.

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I would love to do a jellyfish tank. I think they look so cool. I saw a cylindrical tank while I was in Bournemouth, UK with quite a few upside down jellyfish. It was quite a sight.

 

Given the advice thus far, I think I will hold off doing them. Maybe the Columbus zoo has them and I'll just get my fix that way.

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  • 1 year later...

Upside-down jellies are extremely easy to care for. Make sure there aren't any quick currents that will sweep the jellies off the bottom. The need full spectrum lighting and probably some kind of nauplii like brine shrimp or something. Make sure they can't get scratched by live rock or any other sharp objects in the tank. They will release a nematocyst-laden mucus to catch food or scare off predators. This may cause a slight rash. They will grow polyps around the tank, constantly releasing little ephyrae. They will reproduce like weeds. Be sure not to release them into an area that they can pollute. You could probably grow these in your toilet with a lamp and some food. Good Luck!

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, don't worry about getting stuck in corners for these upside-down jellies. They don't need any special flow or anything. Just make sure they have a quiet spot to rest.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...
I keep 6 of these beauties...a fair amount of work if I say so myself.

 

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Hi....

I am a MS student and I'll be working with Cassiopea xamachana....How do I keep cassiopea in the lab? What temperature/pH is best? How many in a tank? should I keep the scyphistomae in a different tank?

 

I am planning on working with the scyphistoma. Any help or advice or pointers you can give would be great!

 

Thanks so much!

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Hi....

I am a MS student and I'll be working with Cassiopea xamachana....How do I keep cassiopea in the lab? What temperature/pH is best? How many in a tank? should I keep the scyphistomae in a different tank?

 

I am planning on working with the scyphistoma. Any help or advice or pointers you can give would be great!

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

Hi,

Ive kept my jellies from 75-85 degrees with no ill affect. I try to keep the ph at around 8.2. As long as you keep up on the water changes and maintenance you can put many together, depending on the size of the tank. I would keep the scyphistomae in a separate tank. Unfortunately, I've yet to work with them in the larval stage and cannot be of much help. Please fill free to ask any other questions you may have.

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  • 1 year later...

I work with both the scyphistomae and the jellyfish! I love them though they are easy to care for they are a hadful lol ....i have like 90 because once they start proliferiating they are crazy!!

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I work at an aquarium and though I'm not the jellyfish handler I do see how we care for both moon jellys and upsidedown jellies. Excuse typos, I'm actually at work right now so no spell check haha. The upsidedowns have a symbiotic relationship with an algea that lives in their tenticles, which is why they are considered photosynthetic. Our jellies are spot fed every other day with mysids and baby brine. There is flow in the tank, but only at the very top. Because of the high lights and low flow we do get quite a bit of cyano in the bottom.

 

These, unlike moon jellies, do not need that special circular tank (called a kreisel) because they are not a free swimming jelly. Ours are in a square tank and are florishing (we have a breeding population, yay!). IMO, I don't reccomend that tank offered at jellyfish art for moon jellies. It is extreemly small to be housing three moon jellies no matter what they tell you. Yes, they are small as babies, but some of our adults are easily 9" in diameter.

 

I would get some upsidedown jellies myself if I didn't already have them at work (same reason you dont see me with a 1000 gallon shark tank haha). I think they're neat and if you do too it would be a great idea to give them a try at home as long as they are researched like any other buy should be.

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  • 3 weeks later...

landshark,

 

I would only do one, maybe two tops. Since they need a mostly open sandbed you are very limited on your natural filtration. I would not put any tankmates with them because it is such a small tank and any additional bioload is pressing it.

 

As I asked you before though, what is your previous experience with keeping marine animals? Seeing as you were talking about putting a seahorse in with jellyfish leads me to believe you are a beginner, and these animals are really not good beginner saltwater animals.

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