I hadn’t realised until I saw a news item about this kickstarter that it was possible to keep jellies at home. Now I can’t get the idea out of my head. I absolutely love watching jellies. Pretty much the first thing I do when visiting a major city is go to the aquarium and check out the jellies. I frequently put the Monterrey Bay jellycam on my second monitor while gaming. So, obviously, I love this idea. But I’ve never even kept ordinary fish (my brother had an aquarium when I was, like, six, but that’s about as close as I’ve come) and I’ve no idea if this tank is any good or what the pitfalls are. It seems like there’s actually a decent range of affordable domestic jelly tanks available these days, but does anybody have any direct experience? Given the choice, which jellies should I go for (everybody who supplies them stocks moon jellies, it seems, but might I be more ambitious?).
I’ve never kept jellyfish before, but I will say that maintaining a saltwater tank was both expensive and a major PITA. I quickly realized that I appreciated sea life in the aquarium more than in my home.
Jellyfish weird me the hell out. I used to volunteer st my local aquarium and there’s this torus shaped container for them, like a donut stood vertically that fell partially through the floor, and the jellyfish inside just drift slowly in a loop. I mean, they have no choice, they have no means of independent locomotion and no brain to manage it if they did. They are living proof that ignorance is bliss.
Did you know there’s a species of jellyfish in the Mediterranean that is effectively immortal? At times if great stress, for example if under attack or starving, it will revert to a simpler “blob” state. And while in this state it’s cells will regenerate and basically regress, so that when it returns to its jellyfish state it is kind of reborn. It can do this indefinitely, which means it seems to defy the laws of nature. Tell me that’s not creepy.
They can kind of bloop along, can’t they? It looks like they can bloop.
If by “bloop” you mean they pretty much go where the current takes them, yes they certainly bloop along. All they really have is their tentacles and those are just for feeding.
Very well, I stand corrected, certain species of jellyfish are capable of propulsion. Motion to call said motion “blooping” passes.
Can’t even imagine keeping one at home. So much bloody effort. We have a reef tank at work and while it has been stable for two years now, we basically stopped caring about checking that all the values are proper. We keep it clean, change water once a month or two, sometimes with real sea water (Like today, yay for midday beach visit at work) and everything is fine. We have a couple of huge corals that refuse to die, they even prosper, growing larger and larger, shading huge areas below them, making smaller corals shrivel and die.
I have a saltwater reef aquarium with fish and corals. It is a LOT of work and quite expensive to maintain. I love it as it is one of my main hobbies and I love the applied science of maintaining proper chemistry.
There was a kickstarter for a jelly tank a few years back that had mixed results. A lot of people had their jellies die or get pulled into the filtration system, difficulties with maintenance, etc.
This particular one you linked looks interesting, but just something as simple as mixing saltwater properly is not “easy” without a good refractometer to measure the salt level. I’m not sure without doing a little more research if jellies are sensitive to swings in alkalinity and pH. I would advise caution that this is truly “easy.”
Understood, which is why I was seeking feedback. From the research I have done even the acclimation process can be problematic, let alone keeping them alive in the tank long term.
I find something soothing about the alien nature of jellyfish and their strange movements, although I could understand someone being terrified by the same things.
Jellyfish heaven is a lot like L.A.
I’ve had jellyfish, it’s a fairly common Chinese dish. It has essentially zero flavor but a somewhat offputting texture. Generally inoffensive, but I would never order it given my druthers.
This is exactly my experience.
I love me some jellyfish! The texture has a nice crunch to it.
Its a blast of salty fresh crunch that makes for a good canape/amuse bouche but not sure i could eat my way through a bowl of it. Same with sea cucumber. Small portion at a posh banquet type affair is fine but lets face it, it’s a spiky slug.