black jelly fish???

[chrismikea]

i got a black jelly fish today but cant find any info on it. anyone got any good sites that might have some info. i will try and get a pic up of him later

[GaryP]

Do you still have any fish alive in your tank? J/K.

Seriously, I might suggest in the future that you research something as unusual as a jellyfish before you buy it. This isn't like an unusual species of SPS or a damsel. Even the more comonly traded jellyfish species such as upside down can be difficult to keep alive if you don't have the right kind of system for them. Many of these jellyfish have a powerful sting and some also eat fish. If I can't get a lot of info on it from ther LFS I would probably leave it there.

I checked my copy of Shimek's invert pocket guide and it wasn't in there. It also wasn't in a couple of the online websites I usaully check, such as liveaquaria, with no luck. That's not a good sign. Its obviously something that is not commonly traded in the ndustry. There may be a good reason for that.

[JimD]

Portugese Man o War, I hope you have a big tank, these things can get up to three feet in diameter and sport up to fifteen foot tenticles. Theyre also extremely venomous carnivours.... Have fun!

[cpreefguy]

dont touch it

[Richard]

I hope it isn't THIS (http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/nation/12483329.htm) one. Three feet in diameter and almost nothing known about it. Good Luck.

[cpreefguy]

Is it this one?:
http://animals.timduru.org/dirlist/fish/sc-s095233-YellowTangFish_Follows_BlackJellyfish.jpg

[falcondob]

Is it this one?:
http://animals.timduru.org/dirlist/fish/sc-s095233-YellowTangFish_Follows_BlackJellyfish.jpg


Oh My God! That looks like something from a M. Night Shamalan nightmare that scared even him. What do you feed it, small children? That yellow fish proves the level of intelligence in yellow fish!

[chrismikea]

no it is llike the size of a 50 cent piece

[cpreefguy]

no it is llike the size of a 50 cent piece
now...
Ill try and find some info for you, good luck!!!

[GaryP]

I've seen the one in the pic when diving on the kelp beds in Calif. Simply beautiful.

[Flobex]

i dont remmeber the site, but i was looking to start a jellyfish tank before, and you need a very advanced system. you need some system that provides flow from the bottom of the tank up, so the jellyfisah can stay afloat, and they also need this current, so there plankton dinner will be pushed to them. they also need a cold tank, in the 50-55 degree range, so a chiller is neccesarry. this wwas just general info on some jellyfish, so im not sure oif it applies to yours, but i would reccomend taking it back to wherever you bought it. also some jellyfishes life spand can be form a week- less than a year...

[lhoy]

For those interested in Jellyfish I came across this website with the circular aquariums and other equipment for keeping Jellyfish. Get ready to spend some bucks though. http://midwatersystems.com/

Lee

[OldSalty]

Sorry but I just have to vent on this one. WHY would anyone sell stuff like this, and WHY would anyone get something like this without knowing anything about it. I'm with Gary here. Sorry but this person has no buisness in this hobby if they buy stuff like this. You wont even begin to keep it alive. I've been in this hobby for 30 years and I wouldn't buy something like this and I'll bet there are a lot of other very experienced reefers that feel the same way. :angry

I really dont mean to offend anyone but PLEASE check it out before ya leap!

[JimD]

At least he came here for advice before making a decision. Thats a form of research. I feel the same way towards Linkia starfish, flame scallops and in some cases, Mandarins. He asked a similar question about a sea apple and was advised against it and he took the advice, hopefully he'll do the same here. Why would anybody sell something like that? No brainer, its the old, jee, aint that pretty, I have to have it, "some" retailers thrive on pulling the impulse buy trigger, usualy at the expense of a life. Its all about the money.

[don-n-sa]

One thing to consider here is that the LFS might not have even ordered it...I have been at LFS's before and helped unpack orders and have seen some critters that were not even on the invoice or sometimes they say "bonus" or "throw in". Most of the time these critters are not reefsafe, get way too big for the home aquarium, or have a very low survival record...its probably why they are a throw in crittter to begin with. An honest LFS will tell the customer about the critter that they are buying but some will not. Luckily the ones that I go to will. :)

[hobogato]

actually, in this case, he took it home b4 asking. i know we have all been there, see something we just love and buy on impulse. hopefully with experience, we get away from doing that. i think one of the best suggestions i have heard on this is to cary a pocket guide like gary does, so if it is something you just cant leave the store w/out, at least you can get some idea of what you are getting yourself into first. i am at the point now where i know enough to know that i know next to nothing.

[Instar]

Chrismikea, even though you are getting chastized a bit here, I understand the alure of these creatures. They are beautiful, even though they are not something you will probably try a second time. Take lots of pics, who knows, maybe you will learn something worth learning about water quality maintenance and planktonic food organizms with this. Just do simple water changes, no chemical additives. The only change from stability that they will survive is a little flux in salinity. Using chemicals such as buffers, etc. will change the water too fast. Waters need to be nearly perfect and very stabile. Once fish food is added to feed something else, that water quality starts to change. I hope you get to keep him for a while but also hope he doesn't ruin any prized coral or fish with his potency.

Some place might sell something like that because they get it with and order, didn't ask for it, now what? Put a tag on it and hope someone gets some enjoyment of it before it kills something or dies. Wholesalers are not all that responsible sometimes.

When he dies or gets caught around something, you will need to clean it up very well and do a complete water change before adding anything else.

[Gator]

instar is one of the only people who actually helped this guy out. maast has gotten to much of the oldscholl refers or the expierenced reefers who just go off on people who are trying to get some help, where were yall when you started out probally stupider thatn anyone. it seems like anytime someone gets on hear and asks a question they are hammered becasue it is so oviouys that that is not the way to do it .. well you know what mabey everyone needs to back off a little bit and start helping like instar did and not critizixe so much becasue this person really wants to know how much they screwed upa nd are stupid for buying someting they liked.... we all need to start being more helpful to newbies and not so degrading, i=

[hammondegge]

yeh, i have made mistakes and still do. however i try really hard not to. there is a lot of good information out there, and still some bad. its tough sometimes when you do the research only to find out after introducing it to your peaceful little utopia that you have unwittingly adopted a little sociopath and brought it home to live with you.
but, if the information is lacking then i think it is best to pass. ditto when the information available all points to limited success. if the many excellent enthusiasts with decades of experience are finding limited success then thats not just a streak of bad luck. it will take advanced care, experience, technique to switch the tide.
maast has been a huge source of information for me, as has www.wetwebmedia.com and www.reefcentral.com . i see people getting flamed on all these sites for asking the "stupid" question, but where do they go when they get pushed out? to the LFS? hopefully its a good one.
i say we invite them in, give them therapy, and keep the serial killers off the streets :o ;) :lol :angel

[Gator]

if we are lucky in about 3 moths we can be like reefcentrall, and think we are all better than the new people that screw up,,,,,,, not like the expierenced reefers who never ever made any mistakes and are godd.

[hobogato]

i think people just forget that they were starting out once too. kinda like parents that want to tell their kids how to do everything, they forgot what it was like to be young and inexperienced. hopefully, the newbies can look past some of those negative remarks and see that there are people here that want to help them and arent giving them pointers or pointing out their mistakes to make them feel bad. they are doing it because they care and dont want to see others make the same mistakes that they did. some are just more tactfull than others.

bottom line, if they didnt care about the person posting or animals in question, then they wouldn't bother posting at all. ;)

[hammondegge]

yep, often the right path is the longer one.

[Gator]

i know a few reffers who asked a few important questions just to get chastized by refers who think that everyone hwould know what they do. this person has not and does not wish to join maast again for this reason, when maast started out everyone helped each other out beacuse wedid not know each other. but since soem people have multiple posts they have gotton acustomed to maast and can joke with each toher and not be afanded becasue we knbow that person is jpking but what happens when a new person asks a question and they are humiliated they dont wanjt to post again bwecasue they feel stupid, i think we need to try and remember not everyone knows that if you are joking or not

[hobogato]

tact is the key here. if it is someone new, we all should be a little more sensitive with the advice we give.

[gcantu]

One question. Where did you get it? I visited most of the local fish stores that were open this past Sunday and remember seeing a black jellyfish in one of them. I won't mention which one, but I was just wondering if it was the one I saw.

[seamonkey2]

yes gcantu, that one, I was there when the order came and everybody was stuned their supplier sended 2 black jellies, I was going to buy one also, but knew most if not all jellies, sting at one point or another of their lives, so opted to not buy it, while the person whom originaly posted this, just took it, I asked him where was he planning to put it, and he stated it was going in a small tank with no other tank mates.
the jelly I think is a baby, no tentacles at all, and the store owner, put it in one of the tanks so it would not die, but even him wasn't sure what to do with it.
one thing for sure he asked one of his staff to get some info on it, pronto, because he did not want to to sell it to reefers, but if you want it he will sell it to you, after all of us if we want something, we get it.

as others have posted here, the most experience reefers have the tendencie to preach to us whom are not as experience as they, there are exceptions, of course, Gary has always been very helpfull and polite, even although we may pick at him, I respect him very much, for he has always help me and others, without talking down to you, even if we may have deserved, of course there are plenty of others, but Gary is the first one that jumps out in the crowd.

any way dont know much about jellies, they look cool they requiere a kreel tank, that is a expensive tank, I look into them for a while to raise my baby horses, and lots of plankton, if big enough the ocassional fish, and don't stick your hand in the water or you'll get stung

Jose

[Thunderkat]

I want to see pics of your jellyfish. When I lived in Hawaii those Portuguese Man 'O War would wash up on shore and I would pick them up (with my bare hands) and collect the live ones and put them in my tank. None would live more than 3 days but they were extremely cool to watch. One thing to consider though it might not be a jellyfish, it might be a larval form of something else. I have heard about critters that have alternating forms with generations.

[hobogato]

it isn't a manowar, i saw the other one this weekend, and sadly, it looked like it would die soon. it was shaped like a miniature of the one pictured earlier in this thread minus the long tenticals. almost like a "cabbage head" that you would see on the gulf coast, only very small and black.

[don-n-sa]

Manowars are easy to identify...they stay afloat due to the air filled sac, they are purple with long purple tentacles. Thunder...since you used your bare hands then you probably grabbed the sac on the top unless your are one of those people that like pain...I have been stung a few times while I was living in Florida...it wasn't very pleasant... :blink

[hobogato]

yep. picking those things up is always fun, until that float sack burst and you get stung on you hands and face. :blink >_<

[cpreefguy]

Or when you're wade fishing and you dont see it, then it stings your legs and your reaction is to swipe it off with your hand, then you get stung on the hand. >_<

[Thunderkat]

Yeah, people told me it didn't sting me because I used my hands, I was told not to try touching them to my thighs or inner arm. The ones I saw had the float sac, extremly long tentacles, but the tentacles were a very beautiful blue color (some were also clear).

Either way jellyfish are very cool but not cool enough to pay the price listed on their tanks in that link. :lol

[Instar]

If Chrismikea is still reading this, it sounds like a Cassiopea jelly since it doesn't have tentacles. Those are reasonably commonly imported because they don't sting. They come in a variety of shades of light silver to black.