Upside Down Jellyfish at the Amsterdam zoo aquarium
- Thread starter Robatusan
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I've seen them for sale many times, while they aren't really "reef safe", I don't believe they are too difficult to care for. At least compared to other jellies.
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Robatusan
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Do you know why they are not reef safe? I wonder if they sting corals.
Off the top of my head they would be destroyed by the flow and they also live in sand not rock. If you were to keep them they probably would do best in an all sand environment so they can't damage themselves.
Sallstrom
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Yes, they sting some. And they will end up in the overflow if the flow is too high
So not really suitable for an ordinary reef tank. But it's possible to host them with corals like Xenia and Sinularia. We have that setup now, and a couple of pyjama cardinal fish.
Otherwise they are really hardy compared to other jellyfish!
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Robatusan
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Wow, that's so cool! Thanks for respondingHere's our Cassiopea tank
Ron Reefman
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We see these quite often. At Lover's Key State Park there is a back estuary and they gather there a lot. We also see them when we snorkel in the Florida Keys at a spot we know as the Horseshoe (an old quarry in the shallows along side an island). The upside down jellies seem to like slightly dirtier water and considerably less flow than a reef. I was playing with a small one while snorkeling, debating whether to collect it and try to keep in in my old shallow reef. But I decided not not to and later noticed I had been stung on the wrist between my dive glove and my dive skin! It wasn't bad, just like a small spot of nasty sunburn.
I'm not sure how hard these would be on corals as I don't think they move around much. But I'm pretty sure they will eat your fish!
I'm not sure how hard these would be on corals as I don't think they move around much. But I'm pretty sure they will eat your fish!
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These guys are COOL! I wonder about keeping them in a species specific home tank.
tomxreef
Active Member
I am actually setting up a nano for these guys right now.
Planned equipment:
Aquamaxx 18.1 gallon rimless tank
Fluval Aquaclear 50 with a sponge attachment on the intake
Either a Kessil A160 tuna sun (to keep macros) or a spare Nanobox Tide that I have
I will be using oolite sand
Planned equipment:
Aquamaxx 18.1 gallon rimless tank
Fluval Aquaclear 50 with a sponge attachment on the intake
Either a Kessil A160 tuna sun (to keep macros) or a spare Nanobox Tide that I have
I will be using oolite sand
Peter Clark
Active Member
I used to see these where I worked in the Florida Keys and then later on my honeymoon in the Pacific. Really cool.
Pests! They'll take over a tank if you let them breed, their polyp form gets into everything, as well as once they are in a tank they never really get out. I foolishly started a nano thinking I could do xenia and portugese upside down jellies. So many polyps all over the glass I was scraping weekly, the adults over populated the xenia very quickly and took over, as well as died and would cause crazy cycle problems. Decided to restart, made a mini nems and sexy shrimp tank after letting it go dry, apparently some water was in the live rock and sure enough, jellies were back. Had to completely redo the tank and transfer everything over but the live rock and dip everything else but shrimps. Now that tank is freshwater!
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Good luck. I think this is possible to do despite the issues TiaDav ran into. They may be different enough that you won't have the same problems. However, if you look them up at Live Aquaia you'll see they say 'Expert Only'. That said, you do realize that these guys can get quite big, right? The spot we see them in fairly large numbers is cool, and they often have different colored feather like 'tentacle' which makes for a nice look. But I think the full grown adults get to be 8" to 10" in diameter. I'm not sure about this, but I think they have a rather short life span of only a couple of years.
If you want help locating some in the wild (Florida Keys) where you can pick the size and color you want, send me a PM and we can discuss it. We find them in shallow water that is super easy to snorkel in. And you're just a very long days drive away from the Middle Keys.
saintsreturn
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Its been a while since i have seen these guys! They are cool looking.
Sallstrom
2500 Club Member
Yeah, I forgot to mention that some aquariums have problems with their polyps taking over the hard substrate and outcompeting corals. We haven't had any problems like that. We got Xenia, Sinularia, macroalgae and polyps growing on the rocks. But mostly the polyps sits in the dark in the sump in our system.
Even if Live Aquaria says "experts only", I can assure you these are easy to keep
They do well with just good light, but can also eat newly hatched arteima(and lots of other stuff). They tolerate both high and low salinity and temp. And they are easy to breed. Just need to feed the polyps newly hatched artemia and wait for them to release their ephyra(first stage "larvae"). Put in a container with light and feed with artemia nauplii and they turn into small jellyfish. Hardly need any circulation, we usually set an air line in with 1-2 bubbles per second for the juveniles.
I think we got the species Cassiopea andromeda, but might be a mix with Cassiopea xamancha.
If someone has questions I can pass them on to my coworker, who's our "jellyman"
Even if Live Aquaria says "experts only", I can assure you these are easy to keep
They do well with just good light, but can also eat newly hatched arteima(and lots of other stuff). They tolerate both high and low salinity and temp. And they are easy to breed. Just need to feed the polyps newly hatched artemia and wait for them to release their ephyra(first stage "larvae"). Put in a container with light and feed with artemia nauplii and they turn into small jellyfish. Hardly need any circulation, we usually set an air line in with 1-2 bubbles per second for the juveniles.
I think we got the species Cassiopea andromeda, but might be a mix with Cassiopea xamancha.
If someone has questions I can pass them on to my coworker, who's our "jellyman"
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Sallstrom, can you tell me the life expectancy of an upside down jellyfish? And how often do they breed?
I'm just curious as I'm getting ready to set up a small tank to keep and breed rock flower anemones. I've already had 3 rounds of babies over the last 2 years in my old 120g tank and in my new 40g cube. If I wasn't doing these, I'd consider the jellyfish idea!
I'm just curious as I'm getting ready to set up a small tank to keep and breed rock flower anemones. I've already had 3 rounds of babies over the last 2 years in my old 120g tank and in my new 40g cube. If I wasn't doing these, I'd consider the jellyfish idea!
CoralReefer2110
Active Member
About 10 years ago I was keeping these. There are several points made above that I think are spot on:
1) Dirty (read: less perfect than reef quality) water.
2) Low flow, minimal overflow or powerhead exposure.
3) Softie or non LPS/SPS environment.
I had taken an old 100g sump and partitioned it off to take one of my return lines and so it flowed from a refugium into a seahorse chamber and then even more slowly through the jelly chamber before heading into the actual sump. It actually worked quite well. The seahorses were being target fed routinely so the water heading into the jelly chamber was nutrient rich (more so than anywhere else in the system) and the same sand bed served the fuge/seahorse/jelly portions which provided pod breeding ground nicely. The macros once and while escaped the fuge and even when rogue jelly spawn made their way back 'up system' nothing never got out of the contained area dedicated to these creatures. It also meant that gravity alone did all my flow for me which solved the powerhead issue and as anyone keeping macros, jellys, or seahorses know - that's a biggie.
I have a picture of the whole thing somewhere. I just need to do some digging. That was back when we only took pictures of meaningful things on our phones......
1) Dirty (read: less perfect than reef quality) water.
2) Low flow, minimal overflow or powerhead exposure.
3) Softie or non LPS/SPS environment.
I had taken an old 100g sump and partitioned it off to take one of my return lines and so it flowed from a refugium into a seahorse chamber and then even more slowly through the jelly chamber before heading into the actual sump. It actually worked quite well. The seahorses were being target fed routinely so the water heading into the jelly chamber was nutrient rich (more so than anywhere else in the system) and the same sand bed served the fuge/seahorse/jelly portions which provided pod breeding ground nicely. The macros once and while escaped the fuge and even when rogue jelly spawn made their way back 'up system' nothing never got out of the contained area dedicated to these creatures. It also meant that gravity alone did all my flow for me which solved the powerhead issue and as anyone keeping macros, jellys, or seahorses know - that's a biggie.
I have a picture of the whole thing somewhere. I just need to do some digging. That was back when we only took pictures of meaningful things on our phones......
tomxreef
Active Member
I am not worried. I have a good friend that works at the Georgia Aquarium that said they would grow in a toilet as long as the light was on. He also said that you can pretty easily control size by withholding either food or light. My only concern was salinity swings.
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