South American Sea Nettle (Chrysaora plocamia)

Overview

South American sea nettles is a large sea nettle with the bell diameter typically 50–60cm with the oral arms reaching lengths of 2–3 m. Rare specimens attain diameters of about 1 m with oral arms extending more than 3m.  The colour of the bell is light pink to white until they grow to the size of 10cm, then they will develop the red or brown 16 triangular streaks radially distributed on their bells. The wild specimen can be intensely pigmented from dark red to brown on their whole body.

Relatively easy to breed and grow. The healthy polyps can spread fast and produce jellyfish quickly. Newly born ephyrae are already capable of feeding baby brine shrimp well. They grow well on feeding solely on live baby brine shrimps, and are not capable with feeding on other jellyfish. They feed also other types of food such as adult brine shrimp, mysids and sea food shakes.

Species Information

• Harmful to humans: No

• Distribution: Both Atlantic and Pacific coast of South America

• Maximum Bell Size: 1m (3.3 feet)

• Life Span: 2-3 years

• Feeding: Freshly hatched baby brine shrimp, adult brine shrimp, mysids, sea food shake

• Temperature: 15– 22°C (59 – 71.6°F)

• Salinity: 25-35ppt

• Photosynthetic: No

• Care level: Easy

Notes: Although most of Chrysaora species of jellyfish prefer to feed on gelatinous plankton over crustaceans, South American sea nettle is not capable of feeding on other jellyfish.