Casiopia

[Paul B]

Earlier this week I was in the Florida Keys.

My closest friend and his wife have a house on a canal there and we rented a boat to do a little snorkling, here is one of those upside down jellyfish that I met there. They are about 10" across and the mangroves are covered in them. The water there is sort of turbid and full of nutrients (and manatees) I am sure the manatees help the casiopia jellyfish as they are sloppy eaters and scour the bottom, mud like large vacuum cleaners stirring up mud everywhere. The particles in the mud also feed the numerous baitfish that attract small barracuda as well as fish eating birds.

Notice the mud and hair algae on the bottom, Sort of reminds me of my reef.
This is in Pennicamp Park, a coral reef preserve where I have dove a few times. We didn't dive this time as there was not enough time but I mainly wanted to snorkel in the mangroves as it is a different habitat then I usually visit.

Photo by Richard Natole

 

[Paul B]

It would not be to difficult to cath one of these jellyfish, the challenge is to walk through the 24" deep water where they are without stepping on them as the place is carpeted in them.

These do not do well in a reef tank as you can see their natural conditions are much more nitrient rich than we could possably provide in a tank. If we did, we would also have to keep manatees to eat the algae.

But we can learn something from this. With all these nutrients from the decaying mangrove forests and all this sunlight, there is very little algae growth. I have always said, it is not just nutrients and light that grows algae although nutrients will make it greener. Some reef tanks, mine included have very high nitrates, plenty of light and no algae at all in the tank. Yes there is some in the algae trough but not very much at all considering. We know all there is to know about algae growth "NOT". We think we do, but we are like what I like to call

"Wrong". Algae "sometimes" grows in a tank full of nutrients and "sometimes" grows in a tank with no nutrients. Why? I have no Idea but I know that I do not know. There is an entire Plethora of things that I and we don't know. Ich is another one but that could go on forever.

 

[Paul B]

This is the area there that is covered in upside down jellyfish, a few yards away in deeper water are manatees.