Moon Jelly
Aurelia aurita
Moon Jellies are in the phylum of Cnidaria and are found in abundance throughout the world ocean. They are planktonic in nature and feed primarily on zooplankton. Translucent in nature, they are made up of approximately 95% water.
Credit: Robin Riggs
SPECIES IN DETAIL
Moon Jelly
Aurelia aurita
CONSERVATION STATUS: Not evaluated
CLIMATE CHANGE: Uncertain
At the Aquarium
Southern California Gallery and Harbor Terrace where you can touch them with two fingers.
Geographic Distribution
Found throughout the world ocean, favoring tropical and temperate waters. However, they are not typically found in the Arctic or Antarctic Oceans, as they are usually too cold.
Habitat
They are primarily found in pelagic environments (open ocean). Scientists believe they can particularly thrive in areas with human activity, as some of their main predators are removed.
Physical Characteristics
Moon jellies are primarily translucent and do not have any pigmentation themselves. However, sometimes they can appear colorful due to the color of the food they have eaten.
Size
5-40 cm (2-16 in).
Weight can vary - a moon jelly is made up of approximately 95% water and weight can be dependent on size and food.
Diet
They are carnivorous and eat mainly small plankton. At the Aquarium of the Pacific, they eat brine shrimp and are fed three times a day. After eating the brine shrimp, their ring canals (within their bell) are orange in color.
Reproduction
Moon jellies use a combination of sexual and asexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction, male moon jellies release strands of sperm which are gathered by the female moon jellies. The female moon jellies are “brooders”, and will carry A fertilized egg can live for a while as free-swimming planula larvae in the open water before it attaches to the sea floor. After attaching to the sea floor, the larva develops into an anemone-like growth known as a polyp. During the next phase, buds can ‘break off’ individually and asexually, creating clones of itself. They swim away as medusae and will eventually grown into sexually mature moon jellies
Behavior
While they drift along with the ocean currents, they ‘swim’ near the surface of the water, horizontally. This allows their tentacles to cover the largest surface area, in order to catch food.
Adaptation
They have short tentacles, also known as cilia, that are covered with specialized stinging cells called cnidocytes.
While they have no eyes, brain or heart, they can smell, taste, sense light and dark, and also sense up and down. Their sense of up and down has been studied in space on the International Space Station to learn more about human development of the inner ear and sense of up and down in space.
Longevity
They can live for up to 1 year in their medusa stage.
Conservation
They are abundant, and found throughout the world’s ocean, except for in the coldest sections of the Arctic and Antarctic ocean. Moon jelly blooms have been attributed to changing coastlines, overfishing of predators, and climate change. These blooms - large amounts of moon jellies in one place - can damage human coastal infrastructures, including clogging cooling intakes for coastal power plants and impacting fisheries.
Special Notes
Moon jellies are primarily translucent and do not have any pigmentation themselves, however they can appear colorful depending on the food they eat
They have no eyes, brain or heart and their weight is made up from approximately 95% water.
Since the early 1990s, moon jellies have been sent into space - to study the effects of microgravity-induced weightlessness on moon jellies as they develop from polyp to medusa (findings - their sense of gravity did seem impaired by being raised into space).
SPECIES IN DETAIL | Print full entry
Moon Jelly
Aurelia aurita
CONSERVATION STATUS: Not evaluated
CLIMATE CHANGE: Uncertain
Southern California Gallery and Harbor Terrace where you can touch them with two fingers.
Found throughout the world ocean, favoring tropical and temperate waters. However, they are not typically found in the Arctic or Antarctic Oceans, as they are usually too cold.
They are primarily found in pelagic environments (open ocean). Scientists believe they can particularly thrive in areas with human activity, as some of their main predators are removed.
Moon jellies are primarily translucent and do not have any pigmentation themselves. However, sometimes they can appear colorful due to the color of the food they have eaten.
5-40 cm (2-16 in).
Weight can vary - a moon jelly is made up of approximately 95% water and weight can be dependent on size and food.
They are carnivorous and eat mainly small plankton. At the Aquarium of the Pacific, they eat brine shrimp and are fed three times a day. After eating the brine shrimp, their ring canals (within their bell) are orange in color.
Moon jellies use a combination of sexual and asexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction, male moon jellies release strands of sperm which are gathered by the female moon jellies. The female moon jellies are “brooders”, and will carry A fertilized egg can live for a while as free-swimming planula larvae in the open water before it attaches to the sea floor. After attaching to the sea floor, the larva develops into an anemone-like growth known as a polyp. During the next phase, buds can ‘break off’ individually and asexually, creating clones of itself. They swim away as medusae and will eventually grown into sexually mature moon jellies
While they drift along with the ocean currents, they ‘swim’ near the surface of the water, horizontally. This allows their tentacles to cover the largest surface area, in order to catch food.
They have short tentacles, also known as cilia, that are covered with specialized stinging cells called cnidocytes.
While they have no eyes, brain or heart, they can smell, taste, sense light and dark, and also sense up and down. Their sense of up and down has been studied in space on the International Space Station to learn more about human development of the inner ear and sense of up and down in space.
They can live for up to 1 year in their medusa stage.
They are abundant, and found throughout the world’s ocean, except for in the coldest sections of the Arctic and Antarctic ocean. Moon jelly blooms have been attributed to changing coastlines, overfishing of predators, and climate change. These blooms - large amounts of moon jellies in one place - can damage human coastal infrastructures, including clogging cooling intakes for coastal power plants and impacting fisheries.
Moon jellies are primarily translucent and do not have any pigmentation themselves, however they can appear colorful depending on the food they eat
They have no eyes, brain or heart and their weight is made up from approximately 95% water.
Since the early 1990s, moon jellies have been sent into space - to study the effects of microgravity-induced weightlessness on moon jellies as they develop from polyp to medusa (findings - their sense of gravity did seem impaired by being raised into space).