Jelly Fish

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8806203#post8806203 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rjrobert
Anyone try keeping a species specific jelly fish tank?

Bob
Yes, it was interesting...I didn't have a fancy set up though. I just bought a disc shaped goldfish bowl and made some modifications. They need a very gentle current almost like a drip to keep the water circulating in a clock-wise fashion(or counter clockwise). The one I had was easy as long as his specific needs were met. In other words he wasn't particularly sensitive.

5247jelly3.jpg
5247jelly2.jpg
 
Thanks! Going to try and setup something a little more scaled that could house several of the same species

Bob
I'll put some posts up once I start the project
 
The upside down jellyfish from the carribean is photosynthetic, relatively easy to keep and availible from time to time. Do a search for them, pretty cool little guys.
 
rjrobert,

We've kept moon jellies in continuous culture since around 1993. Here is the text I wrote about them in my "Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques" book: (Sorry, the pictures and the tank diagram didn't come through on this post)


Moon Jelly Aurelia aurita Ulmaridae

Once an animal only suited for large public aquariums, advances in jellyfish husbandry have brought this species into the realm of home aquarists. Jelly aquariums have long been constructed in some Japanese aquarist’s homes and reports are filtering in that a few home aquarists in the United States also have moon jelly aquariums. While many jellies need to be housed in a “kreisel” (German for carrousel), the moon jelly can often be housed in a rectangular aquarium â€"œ as long as water currents are set up to keep the jellies suspended in the water column. Additionally, the jellies must be isolated from any filter intakes by some sort of screen and diverting water current. Figure 8 shows one possible design of a moon jelly aquarium.

Figure 8.

One design criteria common to all of these systems is that no air bubbles can be present in the water column â€"œ these bubbles will tear holes in the bells of the medusa stage.
Early aquarists working with moon jellies had only one food source available to them; HUFA enriched Artemia nauplii. This food is time consuming to produce and the enrichment products are expensive if purchased in small quantities. Recently, some advanced have been made feeding jellies with a frozen Cyclops product called Cyclop-eeze. This may reduce some of effort needed to feed these animals, but some aquariums have reported that this product will not serve as a sole diet for moon jellies. Adult moon jellies need to be kept at 62 to 65 degrees F., and only live 9 months or so. This necessitates that a breeding colony be maintained, or that new animals will need to be purchased periodically. Two additional tanks are needed to raised moon jellies; a ten gallon tank for the ephyrae and a 20 gallon aquarium to raise the strobolated larvae.
 
From the reading I've done I'm leading toward an inwall 24" carasaul design. I've kept a reef aquarium for several years so I'm pretty comfortable with most of it except for one major item.

Tank Cycling. The tank itself is considerably different in that the display tank can not hold any live rock. Their are Bio Balls but what I'm thinking of is tying the system into me existing 300 Gal Ref system so it can benefit from the stability of the main system.

Can anyone think of a reason not to tie it into the main system?

Bob R.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8876803#post8876803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rjrobert
From the reading I've done I'm leading toward an inwall 24" carasaul design. I've kept a reef aquarium for several years so I'm pretty comfortable with most of it except for one major item.

Tank Cycling. The tank itself is considerably different in that the display tank can not hold any live rock. Their are Bio Balls but what I'm thinking of is tying the system into me existing 300 Gal Ref system so it can benefit from the stability of the main system.

Can anyone think of a reason not to tie it into the main system?

Bob R.
Fwiw, mine was tied into the main system :) No apparent problems
 
Bob R.,

Well, if you go with the tropical Catostylus or Mastigias jellies, you won't need a chiller. On the other hand, you'll be at the mercy of their availability from dealers when you need replacement animals.
In terms of tie-ins with a larger system, that works fine - just make sure you plumb it properly (no check valves, things like that). Lots of public aquariums tie together their jelly rearing tanks to save on chilling costs.
I once heard an aquarist explain how they were going to tie two tanks together using two identical pumps - one moving water into the smaller tank and one moving that water back to the main tank (not sure they ever tried it, but imagine if they did!!!).

Jay
 
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