Jellyfish
Our oldest has been wanting a pet for a long time. Ideally she wants a cat but there are a few issues with that. We like to take vacations, sometimes two or three weeks at a time and can't bring a cat with us. Our neighbors are mostly retired and gone for long periods of time. Thus far, we have no friend that would particularly want or even enjoy looking after a cat and there is no family nearby anymore who might drop in and check on the thing. There is also dealing with cat hair, litterboxes, having to make a special trip to a store we don't normally go to just to get pet food, etc. So we have said no thus far.
Earlier this year, the oldest, hit upon a clever idea. She asked for jellyfish instead. I didn't even know they were available to obtain as pets having only seen them in zoo aquariums and dead on the ocean shore. But she had thoroughly researched the subject and had links she sent me to sites selling jelly fish and necessary supplies. So we relented and bought her a jellyfish kit and supplies for her birthday.
The kit requires setting up the aquarium and doing an detailed analysis of the water followed by a minimum of six weeks to adjust the chemistry to a very specific criteria. Our oldest has been patiently adjusting things and getting them just so and finally, over two months later, we could actually order the jelly fish. We placed the order Saturday night, they shipped the order Monday night from Florida and we received them Tuesday a little before noon.
I didn't have high expectations of jelly fish survival through the postal system but they came in maybe a quart of water triple wrapped in plastic and in a cooler with ice packs inside a large box. The oldest followed the directions getting them slowly acclimatized to both the aquarium temperature and the salt water chemistry before adding them to her tank which has different colored LED light. Thus far, half a day later, they are swimming around and seem to be surviving their new digs. I know our oldest is over the moon right now, checking on them every 15 minutes.
Now the experiment begins on how long a jelly fish lives in captivity by a young adult not yet out of school.
I understand that these are pets that you should not ... um ... pet. :)
ReplyDeleteAccording to my daughter, the little hairs on the perimeter, as well as catch food administer stings but I don't know how much. She hasn't experimented with that yet especially since they are still recovering from transit.
DeleteGood grief how cool!! :^) Ed, please keep us posted on this--amazing!
ReplyDeleteThus far they are still alive even after we were gone for several days on vacation.
DeleteI’m assuming there is no personal contact with the jellyfish? They can pack a wicked sting.
ReplyDeleteI may see what happens later when they are healthier. These are only the size of a half dollar so I'm not sure how much of a sting they can pack.
DeleteThat is SO, SO, neat!!! I'm really impressed! Having kept tropical fish for many years, I know there can be ups an downs, so I wish her well on the endeavor. Keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteThat was what I was trying to steer her towards since I too had them when I was younger and knew they could survive well during vacations with automatic feeders. But my daughter of course, had to go a different route.
DeleteHas she asked if they like the LED lights? Are they some type that won't sting her? I'd always wanted to buy the fake ones in liquid lamps. Didn't know you could raise real ones. Are they going to create babies? And she's gonna ace chemistry class! Linda in Kansas (no jellyfish here.)
ReplyDeleteThey are blind and have no brains so according to my daughter's research, lights don't bother them at all but she does turn it off when she's not around. As described above, we haven't experimented with the stinging yet until they get a little healthier from their transporting. I asked the question about babies too but my daughter hasn't reported back to me. Since I think they lay them in the wild attached to the sea floor, the conditions (no sea floor) might preclude having babies but I'm just guessing for now.
DeleteI love jellyfish; they are beautiful and hypnotic. It sounds like this is a science experiment as well as a pet; I applaud the combo!
ReplyDeleteThey are fun to watch. I've always enjoyed watching them in large scale aquariums.
DeleteWow! This is very original, Ed. I only know of jellyfish stings in Hawaii so I hope you have the ones that don't do that. When the kids were little, they wanted a dog badly too. However, because we also traveled we never got one. Instead, we became dog sitters for our friends. It worked out perfectly for us because the kids got their "pet fix" and we didn't have to worry about them when we left home. Art loves dogs, but unfortunately he still prefers not to get one because we still travel (or will anyway when the pandemic is hopefully over) and my mother is very uncomfortable with animals.
ReplyDeleteBoth of my girls for some reason are scared of dogs. I really don't know why that is other than they weren't around them very often growing up. They really want a cat but I just don't want to deal with a cat while gone for several weeks overseas. For now, I am content to just have an aquarium and they can get pets after they are off on their own.
DeleteWill your oldest be getting the jellyfish out of the tank to stroke them and give them little jellyfish treats? Do they like jelly babies*?
ReplyDelete* a traditional type of confectionery over here in England.
Not yet. One lost two (out of four) arms in the transporting process and was very weak when it arrived. My daughter has been nursing it to health by squirting food in it's direction all the time and it may or may not be starting to regrow one of it's tentacles. When they are healthy, I may stick a finger in there and see what happens.
DeleteThat is neat Ed. I had no idea they could be done like that (single in tank makes sense; otherwise your tank "members" are really just short term meals).
ReplyDeleteI have received bees through the mail as well. They came fine and alive.
My parents got lots of bees, both queens and nucleus hives in the mail back in the day. As I recall, the post master would call them to say they had a package buzzing in at the office to come pick up. From just what I have observed with my daughter, raising jellyfish is an older child activity only because it involved a lot of precise chemistry to keep their habitat livable. We'll see how it goes but according to my daughter, they can live about a year in captivity.
DeleteI had no idea one could keep jellyfish! I love it when kids are interested in something and motivated. That's when they learn the most.
ReplyDeleteThis daughter is really into science so I guess I wasn't too surprised when she brought this idea to my attention. What amazed me was the thoroughness of her research when she sent me links to all the things needed to raise them and had obviously spent a lot of time researching those links.
DeleteIt sounds as if this is a real learning experience for your girl. PS: they look pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteThe oldest one is definitely into them. I'm not sure out youngest one really cares that much. Her attention span isn't long enough yet to be mesmerized watching jellyfish.
DeleteWell that is cool. I was unaware of the jellyfish as a pet option as well. Good luck to your kiddo and her new pets. Have a good one, Ed.
ReplyDeleteYou and I both!
DeleteThat sounds like a great pet! Good research for a child! Hope it lives a long time:)
ReplyDelete