Here is an animated podcast featuring the fried egg jelly, the moon jelly, parasitic amphipods, and some crabs. Narration is by Trisha Towanda, the score is by Amil Byleckie, and the drawing and editing is by Sophia Tintori. The video is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. Check out CreatureCast.org to read about this story, or to find others stories about animals.
This medusa, about 35 cm. high, was photographed at 7 m. depth. The egg-yolk, orange feeding lobes hang below the light yellow gonads and the gut. These medusae may occur offshore in huge numbers where they prey on other gelatinous organisms and on crustaceans which they entrap in their venormous tentacles.
Huge swarms of these medusae, inhabitants of Jellyfish Lake, have symbiotic algae. The medusae swim back and forth across the lake to stay in the sun as long as possible. Their nematocysts have lost all their potency.
Better to call these beautiful creatures Medusae echoing the Medusa of Greek Mythology. The streaming tentacles, laden with nematocysts, do suggest the hissing serpents of Medusa's hair. Interestingly, these medusae arise, budded off from tiny polyps hidden in the substrate. Diam. 26 cm./Depth 5m
Public Domain Mark Sum Courtesy of life.nbii.gov
NBII images
Category hierarchy: Interactions Among Species | Defense: Poisons & MoreDescription: Sea nettle in a glass enclosure that is made out of blue glass. The reason for the blue tinted glass is for the color contrast between the aquarium and the sea nettle.Capture device: Canon EOS 30DLocality: Latitude: 3.892955560000000e+001; Longitude: -7.704969939999999e+001
