My New Moon Jellyfish

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snapshooterr

Algae Beater
Feb 9, 2010
88
0
6
Toronto, ON, Canada
www.aquariumphotography.info
Real Name
Chris
I received the (red-eye) delivery of my new moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) in the wee hours of the night a couple days ago. It is very exciting, as I've been hunting around and waiting for them for quite some time and finally found a supplier out of Hawaii that had them on their stocklist.

They all had some measure of tissue damage or tears in their bells. I think they were caused from small amounts of air in the shipping bags that probably ended up as small bubbles through rough handling by the airline and lodged in the jellyfish's tissue which it started to decompose. But after a couple days, they are healing nicely. Two of the three jellyfish have inverted their bells which is probably due to temperature or salinity shock (even after three hours of careful acclimatization). I've been increasing the temperature in the tank (from 68.5f) slowly and they seem to be responding well to that. One is almost all back to normal and the other is still noticeably inverted but much better than it was on the first night.

The tank is functioning really well. I've set-up a couple of jellyfish tanks in the past but this was the first one that I did the construction/modification and plumbing by myself. The jellies are kept mostly suspended in the middle of the tank or riding the water 'merry-go-round' around the perimeter of the tank being pushed by the laminar water flow. Happily, the flow is almost perfect and the jellies very rarely touch the sides of the tank.

There is however a little corner that is not covered by the spray bar and I've seen one of the jellyfish get (temporarily) stuck there. I'm going to have redo the spray bar configuration soon.

I shot this video on the first day they were here. You can seen the bell inversion on the two. They look significantly better now. I'm probably going to get out the video camera as soon as I get a chance for an update.

[video=youtube_share;015u83P8fU8]http://youtu.be/015u83P8fU8[/video]

I'll keep anyone who's interested posted. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
 

Ptrick125

Learning a lot everyday
Feb 2, 2012
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Georgetown(Near Austin) ,Texas
www.patrick.international
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Patrick
I'm very interested...

How much were the jellyfish?

How many gallons is the tank?

What are you going to try to keep the temperature at for them?

How often do you feed them?


I've heard people talk about jellyfish on here, but I haven't seen a video of a member's jellies. It sounds like you have done your research on them.


Sent from my iPod touch using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 

snapshooterr

Algae Beater
Feb 9, 2010
88
0
6
Toronto, ON, Canada
www.aquariumphotography.info
Real Name
Chris
1. How much were the jellyfish?
2. How many gallons is the tank?
3. What are you going to try to keep the temperature at for them?
4. How often do you feed them?
What do you feed them?

1. I've seen them available (in Canada where I'm at) anywhere from $40 to $250 each (they'd likely be cheaper and more readily available in the states). But, the biggest issue is availability. They are kind of an odd ball product so fish stores don't generally sell them. In the USA, I'd try Midwater Systems (LA FishGuy) or Jellyfish Art (I'd recomend against any of the cylinder tanks that JA sells. They do not work nearly as well as the kreisel style aquarium. I've tried both.)

2. Standard 3' aquarium. Modified with rounded corners. If I were to do it again, I'd use a 30-40 gallon extra-tall tank.

3. I'm still trying to work out the temp that'll make them happy. They ones that I've kept in the past hailed from the Pacific Northwest. I kept the tank at 60f. Yes, you read right, 60. These ones are from Hawaii. The average water temperature there this time of year is in the high 70's. But, I figure I'll start low and move up slowly as jellyfish generally do better in water that is too cold than too warm. I'm hoping mid 70's. I have them at 73f right now.

4. Once or twice a day. Live baby brineshrimp, live adult brineshrimp (for the bigger jellies)), frozen rotifers & cyclops, zooplex, mashed salmon, blended krill.


Would like to hear more about the tank, and see some pics of it.
They are on the way. I've just gotten busy with a few other things.
 

snapshooterr

Algae Beater
Feb 9, 2010
88
0
6
Toronto, ON, Canada
www.aquariumphotography.info
Real Name
Chris
Just a quick update on the jellyfish...
The jellyfish are doing really well. Pretty-much all off the damage they sustained during shipping has healed up. They inverted bells have all but fixed themselves (although one of them still flops over occasionally. I gradually raised the water temperature to 75/76f and they seem to like that. Specific gravity is 1.028 @ 75f. They have gotten more active with the temperature increase. They all lost weight/size in the first few days (to be expected with a change in diet) but are eating well now and two of them have gown noticeably.
As they are more active now, if they get moving/swimming along with the current along the top of the tank, they have enough momentum to break thru the curtian of water coming out of the spray bar and make contact with the out flow screen (which isn't so good). I'll have to fix that.

What material did you use to make the rounded corners?
Acrylic from Home depot. Bent into a 10" diameter curve by using a heat gun and a stove pipe as a form/mold. The rounded corners of the tank are removable and not water tight. I did that so I could use really thin acrylic and not worry about the water pressure. I just take 'em out occasionally and clean underneath them.

Their movement is so hypnotizing.
I agree!! The tank is right beside my bed and watching them is better than counting sheep for sure. I have a dim color changing LED light that allows me to kind of use the tank as a nightlight.
 

snapshooterr

Algae Beater
Feb 9, 2010
88
0
6
Toronto, ON, Canada
www.aquariumphotography.info
Real Name
Chris
Here's a new video of my jellyfish. I broke out the video camera (instead of cell phone video) and the editing software for this one. It shows them just after feeding time. The continue to feed for about an hour after I put the food in. Live baby brineshrimp, zooplex and frozen cyclops were fed that day. It's not the same everyday.

[video=youtube_share;u8su5GavmRQ]http://youtu.be/u8su5GavmRQ[/video]

A lot of people have been asking about the tank. I have a video uploading to YouTube now but I'm going to have to finish it after work today. So, please stand by.

Cheers, Chris
 

snapshooterr

Algae Beater
Feb 9, 2010
88
0
6
Toronto, ON, Canada
www.aquariumphotography.info
Real Name
Chris
It's taken a little while to get together but here's the video of the jellyfish tank in operation.

[video=youtube_share;7FZVGw1d63w]http://youtu.be/7FZVGw1d63w[/video]

I haven't really attempted to make the tank very pretty. Just bare-bones and easy to maintain.

Since the video was shot, I've replaced the filter pad / intake screen with egg-crate. It seems to let the water through it more evenly. And, it doesn't collect gunk that ends up in the main tank when I take it out to clean it. I added a filter pad to the top or the bio-balls to collect the gunk. I've also increased the flow rate a bit. It's harder on the jellyfish but better for the bio-balls.

As mentioned before, the jellyfish ride the laminar water flow around the aquarium. This flow helps minimize the contact that the delicate jellyfish makes with the sides of the tank.

It all starts with the spraybar which pushes the jellies down, away from the filter intake. The filter intake is huge compared to the small amount of water flowing through it. The large, diffused surface area ensures that the jellies don't get sucked in.

The spraybar along with the tank's rounded corners create a smooth current around the perimeter of the aquarium. The jellyfish very rarely make significant contact the the sides of the aquarium.

The filter intake screen is a filter pad from a canister filter. The water enters a thin chamber directly behind the screen and goes up and over a weir that keeps the water level in the main tank from fluctuating. The water is then channeled to where it drops into a chamber with bio-balls. Note the slow flow rate in the video. Jellyfish tanks only require enough flow to maintain the correct current pattern in the main tank.

The water passes through the bio-balls and goes down, under a baffle which helps to minimize the bubbles being pumped back into the main tank. Then back up a narrow chamber that contains the heater and a bag of carbon. Then over another weir which maintains a constant water level in the bio-ball chamber. And, finally into the return pump chamber

Where the thermometer is. The water is currently being kept at 75f and a specific gravity of 1.027. The return pump is a MarineLand Maxi-jet 400. This sends water up into 1/2" pvc pipe, thru a ball valve that allows the flow rate to be regulated and finally back out to the spraybar in the main tank.

To encourage evaporation which cools the water some, there is a fan blowing across the surface of the aquarium's water. Between the fan and the heater, the aquarium's temperature is very stable

There are two lights illuminating the aquarium. A blue LED strip above and a dim color changing LED strip under the tank.

The curved corners are thin acrylic, bent into a 10" diameter curve by using a heat gun to soften the acrylic and a stove pipe as a form/mold. The rounded corners of the tank are removable and not water tight. I did that so I could use really thin acrylic and not worry about the water pressure. I just take 'em out occasionally and clean underneath them.

-The spraybar is 1/2" pvc pipe with 1/8' holes drilled every half inch.
-All of the pieces used to modify the tank are acrylic.
-The acrylic is cemented together with Weld-On #4.
-To hold the acrylic parts to the glass aquarium the edges were roughened and lots of MarineLand silicone was used to glue them in.
-Since this build, I have now found that Dow Corning 795 or CWS is a MUCH better glue for gluing acrylic to glass.
 
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