Aquarium of the Pacific, J. The Aquarium habitat for west coast sea nettles is in the Northern Pacific Gallery. Our aquarists have successfully cultured this species for many years. It takes about three months to rear the jellies from polyps to ephyrae, the adult stage. We exhibit our Aquarium of the Pacific-grown jellies and also share them with other aquariums. Commonly in coastal waters of California and Oregon. Pacific sea nettles live near the surface of the water column in shallow bays and harbors in the fall and winter.
In spring and summer they often form large swarms in deep ocean waters. The bell, or medusa, of Pacific sea nettles is dish-shaped, with shallow scallops lobes around the margin. The bell is covered with warts that contain nematocysts stinging cells.
The bell is yellowish or reddish-brown with a darker margin. There may be a lighter star pattern with 16 to 32 rays on the exumbrella, the outside surface of the bell. The tentacles and oral arms are very dark reddish to yellowish-brown in color. The bell diameter can be up to 30 cm 1 ft with oral arms reaching as long as 1 m 3. Oral arms can reach 3. However, ton average, the sea nettles are are usually smaller.
These jellies are carnivores, feeding on other jellies and a variety of zooplankton including larval fishes and eggs, comb jellies, other jellies, and pelagic snails.. As they move through the water with both oral arms and tentacles extended, their tentacles stream below, above, and alongside the bell creating a large surface area with which to capture prey.
When physical contact is made with a prey item, the nematocyst is triggered, causing the nematocyst cell to burst open. The cnidae explodes from the cell and discharges its toxin into the prey, paralyzing it. The trailing tentacles retract and transport the food up the tentacle to the gastric cavity where digestion occurs.
Large prey is partially digested on the oral arms before being transported to the gastrovascular cavity. Once the prey has been transferred, the tentacles extend again to become fishing lines once more. Sea nettles are broadcast spawners; they do not fertilize internally.
This range includes countries like the Philippines, Japan and the west coast of the United States. Sea nettles live a pelagic lifestyle, drifting in the open ocean. Sea nettles use light-sensitive cells to migrate upward in the water column during the day, then sink into deeper water at night.
Sea nettles occupy a distinctive spot in the ocean's food web. They feed on other planktonic animals. This includes free-swimning worms like the arrowworms Sagitta and segmented worms Tomopteris spp.
They also feed on comb jellies, organisms that resemble jellyfish. Despite sea nettles' defenses, many animals prey on them, including sea turtles, tuna, sunfish, some species of butterflyfish and the spiny dogfish. The sea nettle hunts its prey with stinging cells called cnidocytes.
His curiosity piqued, he decided to take some samples back to the Natural History Museum. Genetic testing revealed these animals were quite different than those found in the nearby Chesapeake Bay and Rehoboth Bay. The bay-based species is found in the less salty waters known as estuaries, such as the Chesapeake Bay, and is the newly recognized species of the two.
Both jellyfish were previously classified as Chrysaora quinquecirrha. Even more surprising is that the new research shows that Chrysaora chesapeakei is more closely related to jellyfish off the coasts of Ireland, Argentina, and Africa than to the jellyfish found near Ocean City, Md. The ocean-based species appears much larger than its bay cousin.
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