Moon Jellyfish

We just learned about the Flower Hat Jelly.

Another type of jellyfish is the Moon Jellyfish.

This type of small jellyfish only grows to be about 12 inches wide, and is mostly see through.
It lives in cold or hot water in just about every part of the ocean in the world.

They do not move very much, just mostly float around and try to eat up some plankton or fish eggs floating in the water.
Other animals eat these jellyfish a lot, like fish or birds.
Their sting is so little that most people can even pick up this jellyfish and hold it in their hand.




(from: wikipedia - aurelia aurita)


Moon Jellies - PtDefianceZoo1


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Flower Hat Jelly

We just learned about the Crystal Jelly.

Another type of Jellyfish is the Flower Hat Jelly.

These jellies live in the Pacific ocean near Japan and South Korea.
The grownup jellies only live for a few months.

They rest on the bottom of the ocean during the day, then at night they float up to catch their prey, like small fish.
It's bell is mostly clear with a few darker stripes on it.
Around the bell it has tentacles around the rim of their bell that it can use to sting prey.
If a person gets stung by a flower hat jelly they will usually just get a painful rash.

A full grown jelly can grow to be about 6 inches wide.
When they are just starting to grow up, they are usually less than 1 inch wide.




(from: wikipedia - flower hat jelly)


Welcoming Flower-hat Jellies! - Tennessee Aquarium


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Crystal Jelly

We just learned about the Upside Down Jellyfish.

Another type of jellyfish is the Crystal Jelly.

This type of jelly is mostly clear, with lines called radial lines in the bell part of its body called the bell that help it swim.

Around the outside of the bell are small tentacles that it uses to sting its prey, but the sting does not hurt humans.

It's mouth is hanging down in the middle, and this jelly eats very tiny things like plankton or barnacles.

They live mostly in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California.



(from: wikipedia - aequorea victoria)


Crystal Jellyfish Are Clearly Awesome! - Monterey Bay Aquarium


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Upside-Down Jellyfish

We just learned about the Cauliflower Jellyfish.

Another type of Jellyfish is the Upside-Down Jellyfish, also called the Cassiopea Andromeda.

This kind of jellyfish usually lives in the sand or mud.
A lot of times people think this jelly is a sea anemone because it lays on the ground.
It lays on its back with its arms up waving around, and it uses its bell to keep the water flowing up on its arms.
If some animals come along to its arms, they will get stung and then fall into the jellyfish's mouth that is pointing up.

These jellies also live with algea growing in and around it, and some shrimp, and some other very small animals called zooxanthellae.
These tiny animals help keep other animals away that might hurt the jelly, and the jelly helps keep predators away that might hurt them.





(from: wikipedia - cassiopea andromeda)


[HD] No Sea anemone!!! Upside-down jellyfish / Mangrovenqualle @ Aquazoo [29/52] - FischbottichTV Nils


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Cauliflower Jellyfish

We just learned about the Purple Striped Jelly.

Another type of jellyfish is the Cauliflower Jellyfish, also sometimes called the crown jellyfish or cephea.

The rounded top of a jellyfish's body is called the bell.
On top of this jellyfish's bell is what looks like a cauliflower crown, so that is where they get their nickname.

The bell of this jelly is a bluish purple colored skirt, that they use to swim along.
On the bottom of the jelly are large orange brown mouth arms that it uses to eat with, and a bunch of very small tentacles that it uses to sting its prey so it can eat it.





(from: wikipedia - cephea)


Crown Jellyfish - kitachan3


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Purple Striped Jelly

We just started learning about Jellyfish.

One kind of jellyfish is the Purple Striped Jelly, also called the Chrysaora colorata or the mauve stinger.

This jellyfish lives mostly in the Pacific ocean near California.

The main big body of a jellyfish is called a "bell".
This animal's bell is a little over two feet wide, and usually has stripes going out from the middle, almost like spokes on a bicycle.

Sometimes small crabs called cancer crabs live in the jellyfish, and eat tiny little parasites called amphipods that hurt the jellyfish.

They usually have about eight long skinny dark arms and four frilly oral arms.
These jellies use their long arms to sting their prey, and then bring it over to the frilly oral arms.
The oral arms help to hold on to the prey, and bring it up to the jellyfish's mouth so they can eat it.



(from: wikipedia - chrysaora colorata)


Purple Striped Jelly Montage, Chrysaora Colorata, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California, USA - Jim Gateley


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Jellyfish

We just learned a lot about Cephalopods!.

Let's start learning about something new: Jellyfish!.

The fancy name for all of the different types of Jellyfish is "Medusozoa"
They got this name because a famous scientist named Carl Linnaeus thought their long tentacles kind of looked like the snake haired woman named Medusa in Greek mythology.

Some scientists now use the name "jellies" or "sea jellies" instead of jellyfish, because they are not really a kind of fish.

Whatever you call them, these cool weird animals are found all over the world, in all shapes and sizes!


(from: wikipedia - jellyfish)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cephalopods