Jelly fish

aside from too much flow, i would think they would require much different water parameters than a reef.

different temps, lighting, flow, etc.
 
Jelly fish

They need a special tank called a kreisel. It is a round tank and the water spins slowly exiting through a slot in the top for filtration.

I have seen them at the Monterey bay aquarium. Pretty impressive but I'm guessing pretty hard (and expensive) to do. I googled jellyfish aquarium and found a site that sells kreisels.
 
The do require a special tank and are kept in a species tank with no other animals. I've only seen jelliquarium/ at reef expos but they have the equipment and info on what's involved.
Jellies have a fascinating life cycle but all I've heard is that they take a tremendous amount of time/money/effort to keep them for a very short life.
 
thelittlereef said:
Check out L.A. Fish guys on utube. He has a bunch of jelleis
Click to expand...

Was about to say the same thing. He has about 85 episodes out right now, but he has about a good dozen with info on Jelly fish. It shows how the tanks are setup and what the look like, he even breeds them for a little while. In my spare time at work I've been reading here and watching him :)
 
I don't know this for sure but would also think that a jellyfish dying could be really bad in a system as the toxins released could cause a major die off:(
 
As cool as jellyfish look especially with the correct lighting I think i would get bored with them after a while. I like the biodiversity of a reef tank.
 
Looks like the upside down might work, if he stays put, and if pumps are covered. Not as exciting as the big floating umbrellas though :)
 
sharkdoctor skims these posts from time to time. She works at a local aquarium and runs a jellyfish tank.

She and I built a kriesel a little while back.

I can ask her for specifics if you are serious.
 
You couldn't keep jellies in a reef. Like everyone said, they need to be in a specialized tank. If you have thousands of dollars lying around, I'd suggest a jelliquarium. If not, I would go about making one if you have the resources. No matter what, it's going to be pretty expensive. Depending on the jellies you want to keep you might have to use halides. I believe this is the case for upside down jellies and blue spots. If you want to keep others you won't need halides, but you'll most likely need a chiller. If you have any questions feel free to message me. I'd say jellyfish are almost worth the time and effort ;)
 
Jelly fish don't seem beginner friendly at all. Is there no type that can be kept in a room temp round fish bowl with no light? Like a desktop goldfish except a jelly?
 
How small are you looking to go? I wouldn't really do anything less than twenty gallons ish. You could do comb jellies in that. Honestly, if you're looking for cheap and easy, I would just skip jellies. In my opinion, they're kind of boring. We have two tanks made right now. One for use with a canister filter and one for use with a sump. The canister filter one is easiest in my opinion. What we did was cut out a circular tube, siliconed it in the tank. There's a six by twelve inch rectangle cut out of that. Cover that with screening, I just used the stuff from Lowes. Place one end of the cut out cylinder higher than the other, so that when you push the water through it goes into the cylinder and not into the rest of the tank. Put the intake on your filter on the side that the screen is on. Then on the other side put your output with the sprayer bar across the cylinder so that when the water is pushed into the tank it will spray in. On one of my tanks the sprayer bar is siliconed in, on the other the bar is suction cupped on. If you are going to collect the jellies yourself, I just recommend using the water that you collect the jellies in. Since you're on the gulf you should be able to find some combs. I used to see them all the time in Texas, and I'm even getting them up here in Jersey. If you have any more questions, or need a diagram or something, let me know.
 
Realistically, you can keep jellies for pretty cheap if you are crafty.

You wanna keep them in a bowl on your desk so I'll give you a how-to on that.

Get a 5-10 gallon bowl/round/octagonal tank. You want some height. At least a 1.5-2 feet. Don't get a 10 gal breeder.

I'm not sure what kind of experience you have with salt water or what kind of equipment you have, but obviously you need to have some way of getting good salt water in there with stable parameters. Look into specifics for the specific jellies you're keeping.

Comb jellies are a good start. They do well in a wide range of temps (40-90 degrees F). Specific gravity isn't super critical but keep it around 1.023. They will eat brine shrimp, plankton, copepods, small feeder fish, among other things.

Basically you need to generate a flow for them that will keep them afloat.

In a bowl this isn't that hard. The easiest/cheapest way to do it would be to use pvc to make a sprayer bar. If you can make it round you might be able to sit it in the bottom of the bowl and make it look nice. Have it spray straight up the middle of the water column and make sure you make it as adjustable as possible. Ideally the water will go up the sides and down the middle or vice verse.

Use a submergeable pump and make sure that the intake is covered with a very fine screen. I found that window screening was cheap and easy to work with. You still may find your jellies stuck to it if you don't set it up carefully.

I would put a false floor in the tank and have your pump (and maybe a heater) down there. Set your sprayer bar on top of it.

For filtration I would recommend HOB canister. Route the intake under your false bottom. Nothing too crazy though. Don't over feed and your bio load should be relatively low. I wouldn't recommend more than 3-4 jellies in a 10 gallon tank. In something this small, water changes will be your best way to keep everything in check. Obviously no ammonia or nitrites. Nitrates are a little more important to keep an eye on than with fish. Doing ~50% water changes a couple times a month should keep everything where you need it. If you've got a fuge going somewhere, I'd recommend piping it in some copepods if you can.

I had a bowl set up like this with some moons for a few weeks as an experiment for sharkdoctor. It was really crude but I didn't have any die on me. They are all in her homemade kriesel now. We snagged them out of the ocean. Jellies don't have very long life spans in captivity. I don't have solid numbers for you yet but I wouldn't expect to keep them for any longer than 6 months. You'll need to find a good source for them. They sell them online, but the best place to get them is from the ocean if you live close enough. I haven't heard about anyone successfully/consistently breeding them, but maybe you can pioneer that venture. We plan on trying to figure it out. It's controlled by light apparently, although they don't have any special light requirements normally. I had a small power compact clip on just for viewing.

You should be able to get a tank going for less than a hundred bucks if you are resourceful.
If you go for it take pictures and keep us posted.

I'll snap some pics of sharkdoctor's setup next time I see her.
 
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