Hi @TravisTheJellyfishHi everyone!
My name is Travis, I have been keeping and culturing jellyfish for over 8 years. Over those years I've managed to keep around 40 different species from bioluminescent ctenophores to box jellyfish. They're beautiful creatures, and always a huge hit at public aquariums. Popular at the beach as well, but for all the wrong reasons. I've had an everlasting fascination with these enigmatic creatures. They don't have a brain or a heart or any major organ for that matter. Yet they are animals and have been around since before dinosaurs.
Over the years the have gotten a bad reputation in the saltwater and reef hobby. It started with big, elaborate and insanely overpriced jellyfish aquariums being offered to the public. It all seemed out of reach. And then came a new era of affordable jellyfish aquariums but with it came hoards of hype and misinformation. That's why I'm here today. I want to answer any question anyone has on jellyfish keeping and help clear out the old, bad information. I know this isn't Reddit but: Ask Me Anything!
These creatures aren't difficult to keep. They need specialized aquariums, and its important to invest in a good jellyfish aquarium. It's their life support system. Past that, I would rate jellyfish as being about as difficult as a soft coral. To kick this off, I'm going to pick three of the biggest jellyfish myths and clear them out right here:
1) Jellyfish only live a few months to a year: Nope! This depends a lot on the species but jellies can live many years in captivity. In the wild, they are definitely seasonal. Poor knowledge and care has led to this belief they don't live very long. Most Moon Jellyfish will live 2-4 years in captivity if cared for properly. The record was 13 years in a public aquarium!
2) Jellyfish are cold water and require a chiller : In the early days of jellyfish keeping, you could only find wild caught jellyfish from California. In reality, there are thousands of species of jellyfish and they live in every marine climate on the planet. Captive bred warm water jellies are readily available now. There are even jellies that prefer room temperature water.
3) Jellyfish are difficult to keep: Jellyfish just need a good quality home. Their aquarium keeps them suspended, as they aren't great swimmers. That being said, you can keep jellyfish in just about anything as long as the flow is right and they don't get sucked into the filtration. They're much more forgiving of poor water quality than that SPS you just bought. My first saltwater aquarium was a jellyfish tank and it wasn't until a few years ago that I started keeping corals. I was afraid corals would be too difficult! I'm still better at keeping jellyfish.
Do you know if you can keep Aussie Spotted Jellyfish in the Jellyfish Art Cylinder if full spectrum lighting is added at the top? These would be in lieu of having Moon Jellyfish.
