Expert Jellyfish Care

[jon321]

I know the 'basics' on keeping jellyfish in the aquarium but was wondering if anyone had more specific info or know any good places to find it? I want to setup a custom jellyfish tank, but before dishing out $1000's I want to try a jellyfish or two in my hex tank with the corners rounded off 'ghetto style' with cutup ziplock bags and some modifications to reduce flow from the filter. My main questions are: suitable temperature? Species I should try to obtain, size, feeding, and aquarium volume per individual? I have access to infinite supplies of both live phytoplankton and live rotifers, would either of those do? And how much how often? Anyone have any advice?
thanks,
Jon

 

[ophiura]

Well, of course we can't really post links Certainly if you just do some google searches, like "jellyfish aquarium" you can find some info.
There are very good systems designed specifically for jellyfish, as you know. But yes, Kreisel tanks do tend to cost rather a lot. Hex tanks, in and of themselves are difficult to keep (even in normal situations) due to the footprint of being so tall. How do you intend to cut down ont he flow? You definitely can't have a filter intake sitting in there.
Feeding is not too hard...they are commonly fed things like cyclopeeze and similar. We fed twice a day or so.
Cleaning a jelly tank is, however, somewhat more involved. A regular siphon can be catastrophic, so we literally siphoned with airline tubing. Even then, you can cause major damage to a jelly. Scrubbing algae alse becomes somewhat more complicated. You just have to be very slow and gentle in your movements.
As for temps, it depends of course on species. Many of the more common forms kept, such as moon jellies (Aurelia aurita) are temperate and would likely need a chiller to get the water down significantly. I think we kept them around 55 degrees.
The easiest jelly to keep, by far, is the upside down jelly Cassiopeia. This is a photosynthetic jelly that doesn't really move around. A shallow tank - even rectangular - with good lighting is generally sufficient, though again care must be take to not suck them up with filtration.

 

[jon321]

What I was thinking of using is my 10g hex tank with built in filter. Its been setup salt for about a year now with success. I thought if I rounded corners by siliconing peices of plastic over each corner, kept the live sand with dozens of tiny nassarius snails for cleanup and kept the couple small astrea snails for algae it would be pretty good. The filter is only 50gph and once packed with media isnt that powerful anyways, but I thought Id add a 'bubble trap' to reduce the output 'chaotic' flow even more. Lighing is incandescent so photsynthetic species would not work. Ive seen papuana and something similar in shape to a moon jelly but smaller and more 'fleshy'. Frequent water changes and possibly caulerpa/chaeto would maintain ideal water quality.
Oh and this is just HIGHLY temperary as I just want to see if 1) I can actually keep them alive and 2) if they are something that purchasing a custom jelly tank would be worth my $$$.
Thanks for the input, any other advice welcome!
Jon

 

[ophiura]

No substrate...definitely no substrate. That is not good for jellys. No snails...nothing "sharp" just doesn't work for jelly tanks. Really if you look at jelly tanks (here not talking about the Cassiopeia), there is nothing in there. These things are really really delicate. It is hard for people to really appreciate it.
What is the intake for the built in filter?
Really, I kinda understand what you are trying to test...but it is EASIER to keep jellies in tanks designed for them. It is not so easy in tanks that are not designed for them. So I don't think you will have the best set up, and I am not sure how long you intend to keep them before figuring you can....I don't have a doubt you could keep them in a system for them...the real question, IMO, is when would the interest wear off. That is the real question in putting the money into it, IMO...