Jellyfish in captivity
The jellyfish is a very interesting invertebrate related to corals and plankton. They are brainless, spineless, stomachless and eyeless. Yet they survive floating in the ocean.
Keeping a Jelly fish in an aquarium is not as easy as many other marine lives. The Jelly fish has special needs, and keeping Jelly fish in captivity should only be done by advanced Aquarists. In the wild Jelly fish knows no walls. You would have to use special Kreisel tanks that are cylinder shaped. This way there are no corners to get caught in. Jelly fish are made up like nearly no other marine life you may have seen. It is symmetrical based around some radical point. There is often very little actual organic content, since Jelly fish is over 95% water. They have an outer skin of a sort, and an inner layer. Between the two is the jelly like substance.
Keeping a Jelly fish in captivity it is often fed live brine shrimp larvae in large quantities. You will probably have to breed your own to keep up with it. The sting of a Jelly fish is mild compared to others, and relatively harmless to people.
The Cassiopea Jelly fish in captivity are by far the most common Jelly fish species in aquariums and can occasionally be found in pet stores. To keep Cassiopea Jelly fish, you will need an upwards water flow to allow the Jelly fish to be suspended. The filtration demands of the Jelly fish will resemble those of a reef tank. The water quality must be very good for your Jelly fish to live well. Multiple skimming is a strong suggestion. Very effective biological filtration is important and ammonia content should be kept at the lowest levels humanly possible. Ammonia is known to neutralize the poison of a Jelly fish’s sting, and likely to harm a lot more than just that in the Jelly fish. You will also want decent mechanical filtration.
The next big hurdle is feeding them. They eat live plankton and a few other things in the wild. Again, you will have little luck on goof supply from the local fish store. One thing often used is baby brine, it is not a good as their healthy Diet though. Plan on a second hobby, raising Brine shrimp.
Your Jelly fish depends on strong rays to photosynthesize. Metal Halide and VHO lighting are highly recommended.