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Speaker 1: Pet Life Radio, Let's Talk Pets.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to aquarium Media. I'm your host, doctor Royanon, speaking

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to you from the University of Florida IFIs Tropical Acaculture Laboratory.

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Thanks for joining us. Jellyfish exhibits in public aquaria have

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held a certain to speak and fascination for decades. Early

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jellyfish aquarium systems and hardy species became available to hobbyists,

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with some success. As systems evolved further and more difficult

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species better understood, the interest in jellyfish keeps continuing to expand.

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My guest today, Travis Brandwood, the president and founder of

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the Jellyfish Warehouse, has helped push jellyfish science and culture

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forward and many different fronts. Join us as Travis shares

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his journey from jellyfish novice to expert and teaches us

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the basics of jellyfish biology and aquarian keeping. We'll be

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right back after these messages.

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Speaker 3: Take a bite out of your competition, advertise your business

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with an ad in Pet Life Radio podcasts and radio shows.

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large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than

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Pet Life Radio, with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet

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Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,

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hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,

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and other streaming apps. For more information on how you

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visit Petlife Radio dot com slash advertised Today.

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Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back to your aquarium mania on pet Life Radio.

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Thanks for joining us. My guest today is Travis Brandwood,

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President and founder of the Jellyfish Warehouse. So, Travis, are

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you ready to talk jellies?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 4: I am.

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Speaker 5: I'm super excited.

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Speaker 2: Well as you you may know. I kind of like

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to get some personal information from my guests first, so

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let's start with maybe some earlier year questions. How did

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you first become interested in aquarium keeping? And do you

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remember your very first tank?

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Speaker 5: Yeah? So my dad actually was a cooyfish farmer, so

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I grew up on a coyfish farm. So I've been

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keeping fish and I've been, you know, surrounded by aquaculture

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since I was pretty much born. So I think as

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far as how jellyfish ties into that. You know, I

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was always surrounded by raising any thing I could. You know,

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I was scooping fish out of the creeks, I was

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keeping coy Yeah, and I think even like my first aquarium,

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I probably was like five or six, you know, so

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I was kind of always acclimated to, you know, keeping

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all sorts of things. So jellyfish was kind of a

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next step for me.

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Speaker 2: That's cool. Did your father have you help out on

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the farm at all?

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Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, pretty much as soon as I could walk,

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we were there, especially during the summer, you know, when

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we didn't have school. We were helping out for sure.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty cool. Yeah, so another kind of maybe good,

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maybe bad early memory. I was actually doing a search

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for you, and I came across a pressI talk that

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you put together, I guess ten eleven years ago. I

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think it said you were sixteen or so.

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Speaker 5: Sounds about right.

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Speaker 2: You had a picture of a jellyfish with some clownfish.

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You gotta tell me about that system.

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Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, first, I'm like super fascinated that you were

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able to find that. I don't really even remember making that,

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you know, of course, I don't remember what I ate

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for breakfast in the morning. Half the time. But yeah,

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so that was my first ever jellyfish tank. I built that.

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I converted a by orb aquarium like the tube version

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into a jellyfish tank. And I had kept reading online

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that you could potentially keep moon jellyfish with clownfish, so

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that was something I had to try out. And I

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I mean, it worked out like the clownfish are immune

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to moon jelly's just like they are to an anemony,

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so the sting doesn't bother them. But I did quickly

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find out that clownfish, you know, the environment that you

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keep a jellyfish in is like totally different than a

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reef tank. It's very sparse. There's nowhere for the clownfish

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to hide. So while they weren't being bothered by the sting,

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I could tell that that wasn't really their favorite environment.

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So that's actually how I got into like reef keeping.

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I hadn't kept any kind of other saltwater aquarium other

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than jellyfish at that point, so I took those clownfish

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and set up a you know, like a ten gallon

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reef tank or whatever.

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Speaker 2: I was wondering. I kind of in the picture, they

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looked like, I mean, they looked fine. But they were

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kind of sort of in a in that kind of

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sparse tank. So yeah, I was wondering it's it looked

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like an interesting it looked like an interesting system.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, they did sort of associate with the jellyfish. They

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didn't quite get to like the anemone hosting kind of territory,

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but they they sort of associated with it.

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Speaker 2: Pretty cool. Now, obviously we're going to get much more

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into depth and detail with species and some of the

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more kind of intricacies of jellyfish, But do you remember

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what were some of the very first species you kept,

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maybe not bread yet, but just kept and what the

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main I guess kind of early early on differences you

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noted between keeping jellies and fish were.

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Speaker 5: Right, right, Yeah, the first species I ever kept was

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the moon jellyfish, And that's kind of like your most

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common commonly kept species. You know, they've been breading the

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cranams for years and years, and back then when I

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first started keeping jellyfish in like twenty eleven or twelve,

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you really couldn't buy captive bread jellyfish on a regular basis.

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Sometimes they were being imported and whatnot. So I think

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the first noon jelly I ever kept was like from Hawaii,

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But yeah, so I kept that. I kept a couple

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other moon jellies from different locations. Another common one is

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the upside down jelly. Sometimes people keep those in you know,

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semi reef tank environments, so I kept those as well.

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And then I think the third species I moved on

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to was the bayntal. So yeah, those are kind of

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my first, Uh, I guess, first big three species that

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I kept before I really dove into like breeding them

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and stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I guess, kind of what did you

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see as maybe the major obvious or not so obvious

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differences between keeping those and keeping fish.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's similar relatively speaking, Like when you

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have a concept of how to maintain an aquarium, you know,

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there's a lot that's parallel there, but the biggest thing

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is just that, you know, jellyfish are delicate and they're

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free swimming, and so you kind of have to go

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head first with the aquarium. Like with a regular fish tank,

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you can go to pet Co or pets Murder or

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wherever and buy a ten gallon aquarium or you know,

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whatever size you want and just get started with a jellyfish.

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You know, they do have special requirements for the aquarium,

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So I think, yeah, the biggest thing is, you know,

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all of your work kind of goes in on the

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front end getting the right aquarium, you know, and getting

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that all set up. That's all kind of on the

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front end.

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Speaker 2: Okay, And yeah, we'll definitely get into more more jelly

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keeping tips in a bit, but let's kind of switch

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gears a little bit and get in the biology a

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little bit more and talk taxonomy. Now, can you maybe

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give the our listeners a little bit of sort of

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science in terms of how jellyfish are related to other

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animals they may be familiar with, and also I guess

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maybe some insights into the major groups of jellyfish. And yeah,

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maybe if you can kind of even describe some of

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the kind of differences that would be, that would be cool.

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Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah. So, like as far as jellyfish goes,

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so they are animals and sometimes that you know, surprises

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people that they are classified as animals. But when you

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kind of look at the you know, total as far

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as taxonomy goes with animals, jellyfish are pretty low on

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the on the list. Like you have sponges, which are

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kind of considered the simplest type of animal. Well, jellyfisherre

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like one step up, so they're related to corals and anemonies.

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They're in something called Nigeria, and they actually when you

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really take a look, like a deeper dive into their

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life cycles and stuff, you can see how they're related

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to corals and anemonies a little bit more. Jellyfisher just basically,

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you know, they have a free swimming stage, whereas like

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a coral, you know, picks a spot and stays there

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for its whole life. And then yeah, as far as

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some of the different groups go, I mean you can

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kind of it really depends on how you look at it,

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you know, because like scientifically and taxonomically speaking, you can

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really dive in and there's all of these different groups.

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But if you're looking at it from the angle of

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like either a hobbyist or you know, a public aquaus

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or someone just keeping jellyfish, I like to split it

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up into four groups. So you've got your true jellyfish.

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Those are again like your moon jelly's or your sea

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at almost kind of the thing you look at and

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you go, hey, that it's a jellyfish. You've got your hydrozoans,

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which are the best way I can describe them is

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the weird cousin of jellyfish. They're kind of a lot

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of the freaky looking, you know, smaller jellyfish look like

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they're from deep down in the ocean. That's usually hydrozoans.

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Got your box jellies, those I think a lot of

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people have heard about, you know, the Australian box jellyfish.

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It's lethal, but they're actually found all over the world,

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including here in America. There's about fifty or sixty species

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of box jellyfish. And then lastly, you've got your comb jellies.

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Those are the clear, kind of walnut shaped jellyfish that

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produce all sorts of iridescent light. And they're actually not

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a jellyfish. They get grouped in a whole lot, but

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they's something called the tinophoor and they're kind of just

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in their own little compartment. I think every paper I

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read recently that comes out about comb jellies shows that

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they're just like further and further definantly related. So they're

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they're kind of in their own category, but we often

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roke them into the jellyfish dome.

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Speaker 2: They kind of like move around like jellyfish, but they're not.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and they're made out of that same kind of

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you know, jelly type consistency. You look at that and

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you go, that looks like something made out of jelly.

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Speaker 2: So right, yeah, exactly, Now that makes sense.

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Speaker 5: Yea.

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Speaker 2: So now kind of going a little bit more into

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anatomy and biology. You know, I've got a little of

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a bit of understanding. You know, they're a little bit

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on kind of the hell side. Obviously, I don't know

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jellyfish nearly as well as you can. You maybe give

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us an idiots guide summary of jellyfish biology, anatomy, and

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maybe starting a little bit about reproduction.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, they are super simple creatures. You know, they don't

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have any real organs, so everything they have is just

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cells and tissues. They don't have any true organs, so

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no heart, no brain, no spine, anything like that. But

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when you do, like again, take a deeper dive into

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their biology, you can see how everything they have is

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you know, nothing's a one off thing. Everything has multiple purposes.

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The super efficient in their design, which is how they've

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been around for millions of years. Being so simple, you

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would think that wouldn't work, but what they've done is

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kind of figured out how to be simple and how

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to make that work. But yeah, most jellyfish kind of

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have a pretty simple design. There really only have one

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cell layer the middle stuff there, that thing we think

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of as jelly is called mesaglia, and then they've just

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got kind of a layer of skin on top of that.

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They have stomachs, so they are able to you know,

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catch food and bring it in and digest it. And

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then they've got these little sensory organs on the outside

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of their body and again not a real organ, but

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they're sort of used to tell the jellyfish is it

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daytime or night time. They can sort of detect food

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that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, and then yeah, I guess maybe a little

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bit on reproduction.

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Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, so most jellyfish species are male or female.

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I get that question a lot, you know, like they

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do they have a sex? Are they male female or

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they both? Most jellyfish species are going to be male

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or female. And then you basically have two types of reproduction.

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You have internal or external. So with external reproduction, they

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basically take their gam meats and just throw them out

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in the ocean and hope for the best, you know,

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which is kind of a wild thing to think about.

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That that works, but they you know, nature finds a way.

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And then the internal fertilization is where they actually bring

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in the game meats and fertilize eggs with it, and

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then they actually allow the little larval jellyfish to develop

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inside of the female for a period of time before

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they're then sent back out into the ocean. And then

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as far as like they're you know, kind of whole

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life cycle, they have a multi step process very similar

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to like a frog or a butterfly. You know, They've

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got these different distinct stages that all form a you know,

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a circular life cycle.

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Speaker 2: It's funny as you kind of go through this. They

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definitely have a lot of similarities with some of the

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other nigeria, you know, like I'm thinking a little bit

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about corals. Yeah, so they can also I guess you

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can kind of like cut them into pieces and they'll

253
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all so potentially grow that way. Is that is that

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another possibility as well for reproduction?

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Speaker 5: Well potentially.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: So jellyfish have crazy abilities to heal and regrow. They

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can grow back most of their body and in fact,

259
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those comb jellies I was talking about one species can

260
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actually grow pretty much anything back in a matter of days,

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and so they've been you know, a huge topic of

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research for how that can apply to people in healthcare.

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But yeah, since they're so simple, and again they don't

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have any organs, they're totally symmetrical. Pieces of them can

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be cut off. They usually don't reproduce that way. Some

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of them seem like they can essentially grow back maybe

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into you know, more jellies, but if they can't feed,

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then they kind of struggle to fully grow back. So

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if you cut one like straight in half, it would

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be kind of hard for that to turn into two species,

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but they certainly try.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that makes sense. So now what were the very

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first jelly species you bred? And can you maybe tell

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us a little bit about how that went. Obviously it

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must have been pretty exciting for you.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, so yeah, those very first moon jellies I kept

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actually bread in captivity. And so for me, you know,

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keeping jellyfish was an experiment. Back then, there were not

279
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a whole lot of resources for it. There weren't many

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companies doing it. I had to build my own tank

281
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to get started, and so for me, like the logical

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next step was that after I figured out how to

283
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you know, keep them happy and healthy, I wanted to

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try growing them, and luckily enough, I bought three moon

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jellies and I happened to get a male and a female,

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and so they actually reproduced in that aquarium, and I

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kind of got started with that, you know, growing them.

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So I started with moon jellies, got kind of good

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with that, moved on to some other species, and you know,

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then it kind of snowballed from there.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of other species, So and I think we'll have

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to take a break in a couple of minutes or two,

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But before then, can you maybe tell us what would

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be some of your favorite species? And why? Yeah?

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Speaker 5: I get asked this a lot, such a hard question

296
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because I you know, I'm so deeply passionate about jellyfish

297
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that I swear it changes every week what my favorite

298
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species is, and it's usually whatever challenging species I'm working on,

299
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you know, unraveling at the time. But if I had

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to pick a single one, I would say the mushroom

301
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jellyfish would be my like all time favorite. And they're

302
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they're actually a local species to North Carolina here, So.

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Speaker 2: What, yeah, can you describe them a little bit? What

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do they? Yeah? Yeah, there are.

305
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Speaker 5: Really neat species you don't see them too often. Sometimes

306
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you'll see them in like late fall or spring. But yeah,

307
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so they're found from like Florida all the way up

308
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to New York. They're sort of a clearish jellyfish, but

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they also kind of have like the undersides red or pink.

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But they're really neat because a lot of the times,

311
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you know, you'll hear about maybe one or two showing

312
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up every season, and then every couple of years, like

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maybe every five to ten years. Uh, there's just like

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a ton of them that wash up and they get massive,

315
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which which is uncommon for the East coast of the

316
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United States. Most of our jellyfish are pretty small, so

317
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it really freaks people out when a three or a

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four foot diameter jellyfish washes up on the beach, you know.

319
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So I think they're just super cool, and they're super

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understudied too. There's not much known about them. I've started

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raising them, but you know, their their life cycle was

322
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described in the seventies and they really haven't been touched since.

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So I think there's a lot more to be done

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with that species.

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Speaker 2: So that's going to be one of your next conquests.

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Speaker 5: I said, sure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, let's take a short break and we'll continue

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00:16:34,519 --> 00:16:37,240
our discussion with Travis Branwood, president and founder of the

329
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:41,159
Jellyfish Warehouse, after these messages from our sponsors.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk past.

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00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:39,119
Speaker 5: Let's done, Pet Headline.

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Speaker 2: Radio Catlin Radio dot com. We're back in continuing our

347
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,839
conversation with my guests, jellyfish experts Travis Brentwood. So we

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00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:58,759
kind of talked a little bit about some of your

349
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early beginnings and some basic biology of jellyfish. Travis, let's

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kind of talk a little bit more now about what

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you've done on the commercial side. So how did you

352
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make the leap from jellyfish keeper to breeder to businessman?

353
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And I think I heard her You mentioned you started

354
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in your garage, right, yes, yes, take us through all

355
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of the the insights and changes and decisions that you

356
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made to become the president and founder of the Jellyfish Warehouse.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: So I did, in fact start in my mom's garage,

360
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much to her and my stepdad's amusement. Slowly, you know,

361
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took over the garage with various jellyfish tanks. But yeah,

362
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so I got started. Once I started keeping jellyfish and

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actually breeding them. I started a little blog on the

364
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internet because you know, back in the early twenty tens,

365
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everyone was doing blogging. But I was just sharing my

366
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experience with keeping jellyfish because again, back then, there was

367
00:18:57,319 --> 00:19:00,400
so little information on it, and you were lying on

368
00:19:00,519 --> 00:19:03,480
so much trial and error that I wanted to, you know,

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show everything the good and the bad, what worked, what didn't.

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And you know, as I was writing about raising moon

371
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jellies and stuff, and you know, and I ended up

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with a surplus that then people started reaching out left

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and right asking if they could buy the jellies, because again,

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00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,759
back then, you were dealing with either wild caught jellies

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or it just wasn't you know, it was hard to

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find them in the first place. So I kind of

377
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got started accidentally because I that was not what I

378
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thought I was going to do. I was in high school,

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you know, I was expecting to be a marine biologist

380
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or go work at a public aquarium. And then all

381
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of a sudden, I was selling jellyfish on the side

382
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out of my mom's garage, and I kind of realized,

383
00:19:40,599 --> 00:19:42,680
you know, if I went to college, where was I

384
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going to put those jellyfish in a dorm room? You know,

385
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I started, you know, I got accepted to college, and

386
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I started emailing professors in the marine biodepartment. I was like,

387
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is there going to be like space for me to

388
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,519
put you know, all of these jellyfish? And it just

389
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didn't seem like it. So I actually skipped college at

390
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,559
the time and just dove straight into raising jellyfish and

391
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,759
selling them. I built a website, you know, and then

392
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,799
started doing it from there, and I really I got

393
00:20:10,839 --> 00:20:13,400
started out of my mom's garage, you know, probably twenty

394
00:20:13,559 --> 00:20:16,200
twelve to twenty fourteen. But then I got my first

395
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commercial space in twenty seventeen, and that was when I

396
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was like, Okay, I'm going to do this, you know,

397
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like full full scale, I'm going to go into it.

398
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Speaker 2: So that must have been kind of scary but exciting

399
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at the same time.

400
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Speaker 5: I was absolutely, Yeah, it was, especially because you know,

401
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:35,119
at that time, again everyone was going off to college

402
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:38,920
and stuff, and here I was raising jellyfish, and you know,

403
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,640
I worked a couple of jobs here and there, like

404
00:20:41,759 --> 00:20:45,559
at local quarium stores to not only build up experience,

405
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:48,480
but to save up money for that first commercial space.

406
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So it was just a huge leap, leap of faith

407
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and like an actual leap, you know, jumping into that.

408
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Speaker 2: So that's pretty amazing. I'm always impressed. I'm a terrible

409
00:20:58,599 --> 00:21:02,519
business person. You and other folks like you always impressed

410
00:21:02,559 --> 00:21:04,200
me because yeah, I don't think I could do it,

411
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and I would be bad at it.

412
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Speaker 5: So well that you know, I meet a lot of

413
00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,559
people in the hobby that were just like me, where

414
00:21:11,599 --> 00:21:13,519
it was like you had a skill or you know,

415
00:21:13,599 --> 00:21:15,960
something you're extremely passionate about and you're like, Okay, I

416
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:17,640
want to do this as a career. And you start

417
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:19,680
doing it, you're like, oh, I've got to do like

418
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,680
business and stuff like I gotta I gotta learn that

419
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,559
part of it. So that was probably the most challenging

420
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,079
part and the most you know, trial and error. It

421
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was like I had learned how to raise jellyfish, but

422
00:21:30,839 --> 00:21:33,319
running a business is a whole different experience.

423
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So tell us now about the jellyfish warehouse,

424
00:21:37,519 --> 00:21:40,079
you know, if you were kind of describing it and

425
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:43,119
maybe explaining the space as well as kind of what

426
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you're doing and what your you know, sort of business is,

427
00:21:46,599 --> 00:21:47,359
if you could do that.

428
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Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely. It's evolved wildly over the years. Again, started

429
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,880
in my mom's garage, but the name actually came from

430
00:21:57,559 --> 00:22:01,000
my goal starting out was that I realized that there

431
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,640
was such a lack of resources and jellyfish and tanks

432
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,359
and everything for sale, and there was really nowhere where

433
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,279
you could kind of get all of that. So I

434
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,319
wanted to create this kind of jellyfish warehouse where you

435
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:17,480
could find everything you needed. Things were affordable because you know,

436
00:22:17,599 --> 00:22:21,519
early on, jellyfish tanks were thousands of dollars. So I

437
00:22:21,559 --> 00:22:24,480
wanted everything to be affordable and readily available and kind

438
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:26,440
of all under the same roof. And so that's how

439
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,720
I came up with that name. And then yeah, getting started,

440
00:22:30,079 --> 00:22:33,119
you know, early on, I got that first warehouse space

441
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,440
which was only a little bit bigger than a garage,

442
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:39,519
and just started accumulating you know, tanks and hardware as

443
00:22:39,599 --> 00:22:44,000
I could. And I focused originally on breeding jellyfish because

444
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:45,359
I knew that that was what I could do, that

445
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:47,200
was what I was good at, and I just wanted

446
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,000
to do as many different species as possible because there

447
00:22:51,039 --> 00:22:54,000
really hadn't been any opportunity for that before either. It

448
00:22:54,079 --> 00:22:55,960
was like, if you wanted to buy a jellyfish, you've

449
00:22:55,960 --> 00:23:00,400
got moon jellies or whatever random thing that maybe you know,

450
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,279
a wholesaler got in at the time. So I wanted

451
00:23:03,559 --> 00:23:06,839
there to be a wide variety of captive, bread sustainably

452
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:08,559
aquaculture jellyfish available.

453
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Speaker 2: Can you tell us what are what are some of

454
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,039
the most popular jellies that you're selling to public aquaria,

455
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,240
to researchers and to hobbyists. You know, I'm assuming they're

456
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,759
probably different. Yes, maybe going to that a little bit.

457
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, So like as far as the hobbyist level goes,

458
00:23:25,319 --> 00:23:28,279
moon jellies are still the most popular. There's the most

459
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:32,680
information about them, They're relatively easy to breed and care for,

460
00:23:33,079 --> 00:23:36,079
so they're in good supply. They're very readily available and

461
00:23:36,519 --> 00:23:39,440
pretty affordable for someone looking to get into jellyfish. So

462
00:23:39,519 --> 00:23:42,400
those are definitely still the most common. But I think

463
00:23:42,519 --> 00:23:45,960
sea needles would be the next most common species that

464
00:23:46,079 --> 00:23:49,000
we sell, and we sell quite a few different species

465
00:23:49,079 --> 00:23:51,599
of them. I think I'm up to like maybe ten

466
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,039
different species of sea needles. But they're that jellyfish species

467
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,279
that's got the long, really frilly tentacles, kind of the

468
00:23:58,319 --> 00:24:03,079
classic looking jellyfish. They're really gorgeous, so naturally a fan favorite.

469
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:06,640
So that's for hobbyists. For public aquariums, I think sea

470
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,039
netals are also huge. They're you know, usually a big

471
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,880
jellyfish and again really beautiful display animals. But yeah, I

472
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,319
mean public aquariums are always looking for something you know,

473
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,039
new or interesting to show people. And then as far

474
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:22,000
as researchers and universities go, that's always a fascinating topic

475
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,079
because you know, there's I almost feel like there's fads

476
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:28,559
that come in and out people get interested in, you know,

477
00:24:28,599 --> 00:24:31,839
a particular species again, like those comb jellies that can

478
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,640
regenerate you know, every part of their body. That's been

479
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,599
a huge thing in the past for research. I'm working

480
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,880
on a project now with something called the Immortal jellyfish.

481
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,119
That's a jellyfish that can actually go backwards in its

482
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:47,880
life cycle. So I just started breeding those. Actually caught

483
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,119
several of them on my honeymoon, you know, when I

484
00:24:51,279 --> 00:24:53,920
wasn't trying to have an actual vacation. I was sitting

485
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,759
there collecting jellyfish and bringing them back in.

486
00:24:56,799 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 2: Between trying to breathe. Right, So these are like Benjamin

487
00:25:02,039 --> 00:25:05,680
button jellyfish, I guess, yes, that's something they're called frequently. Yes,

488
00:25:05,799 --> 00:25:08,240
because they can actually go backwards in their life cycle.

489
00:25:08,559 --> 00:25:12,920
So super cool project there. But yeah, with research, there's

490
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,359
always some new hot species that is, you know, of interest.

491
00:25:16,519 --> 00:25:19,559
So yeah, so I have to ask about them because

492
00:25:20,039 --> 00:25:22,839
I've seen sea needtals and yeah, mention, they've got those

493
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,160
really long, kind of frilly tentacles. So so hobbyists that

494
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:28,400
have those must have like really big tanks. I take

495
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,160
it then, I mean don't they they would need like

496
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:31,640
a pretty large system.

497
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,799
Speaker 5: Yeah, typically because they're so long. Now, like I said,

498
00:25:35,839 --> 00:25:39,039
I have around ten different species, and the size differences

499
00:25:39,079 --> 00:25:41,440
between some of them is pretty large. So like the

500
00:25:41,519 --> 00:25:44,119
smaller species we offer, like the bay nettles or the

501
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,519
japanesea netals, those are more suitable for home aquariums, not

502
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,079
only in size, but also like in the parameters that

503
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,640
they're kept at. They do well at room temperature. They

504
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,720
eat kind of easy jellyfish foods. But yeah, some sea

505
00:25:55,759 --> 00:25:58,279
needles get like two or three feet in diameter and

506
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:01,519
are better suited for either giant tanks or public aquariums.

507
00:26:01,839 --> 00:26:05,039
And then another little tidbit about jellyfish is that since

508
00:26:05,079 --> 00:26:08,599
they don't have any major organs, they can actually you

509
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,079
can kind of keep them at a certain size. They

510
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:13,839
have something called growth and de growth, which has been

511
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,960
another topic of research, but jellyfish can actually you know,

512
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:19,240
they'll grow if they have the space and the food,

513
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,279
but in times where there's not enough food or where

514
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,200
there's not enough resources, they can actually shrink in size

515
00:26:25,559 --> 00:26:28,440
to help conserve resources. And it's been found that they

516
00:26:28,519 --> 00:26:30,799
can kind of do this back and forth without any

517
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:32,240
negative effects to them.

518
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,400
Speaker 2: Oh that is interesting. Yeah, yeah, so I guess kind

519
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,359
of going back to maybe a lot of our listeners,

520
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:43,039
maybe hobbyists, what would be kind of your recommended aquarium

521
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,920
type setups in species. I think you kind of hit

522
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,079
on that a little bit, but maybe kind of reinforce that.

523
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:48,559
Speaker 3: Yeah.

524
00:26:49,039 --> 00:26:52,039
Speaker 5: Yeah, if I had to pick three jellyfish species for

525
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,319
like a hobbyist or someone looking to get into jellyfish keeping,

526
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:57,519
I would pick moon jellies because those are a classic.

527
00:26:57,759 --> 00:27:00,960
I would pick marbled jellies, So those are kind of

528
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,880
a different shaped jellyfish. They've got more of a kind

529
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,720
of a gumball shape, you know, you think of a

530
00:27:05,799 --> 00:27:08,079
jellyfish as being like a disc. These are more rounded

531
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,279
and they don't have long tentacles, but they're much more active,

532
00:27:11,519 --> 00:27:14,240
you know, quick swimming species. And then the bay nettle,

533
00:27:14,279 --> 00:27:16,640
which is that other species I recommended that you know,

534
00:27:16,799 --> 00:27:19,359
stays relatively small and does well at room temp. So

535
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:21,759
all three of those species are relatively easy to keep,

536
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:24,039
the foods they eat are relatively easy to get a

537
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,920
hold of, and they're just pretty hardy, you know, all around.

538
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,880
Speaker 2: Would they use similar type of tanks and like what

539
00:27:30,039 --> 00:27:31,440
kind of foods would they be feeding?

540
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, so they all would do well in similar

541
00:27:34,279 --> 00:27:36,759
types of tanks. The cool part about you know, the

542
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,680
time period we're in now is that jellyfish tanks are

543
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,039
getting simpler and cheaper, and there's a greater variety of

544
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,279
them on the market to choose from. And people are

545
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:51,319
also considering, you know, multiple species when they design these aquariums.

546
00:27:51,799 --> 00:27:53,519
So you know, back in the day, it was like

547
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,799
if you picked a jellyfish a cuream, it was usually

548
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,599
designed around like a moon jellyfish and you couldn't really

549
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,359
keep you know, other speci that type of habitat. But

550
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,319
now most of the tanks on the market are pretty universal.

551
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,319
And then food wise, there are pellet foods now for jellyfish,

552
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,799
which has been a huge innovation. It used to be

553
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,559
that you had to hatch brin shrimp to feed your jellyfish,

554
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,799
and that is still a really good option. You know,

555
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,359
it's a live food, so it's super clean and super

556
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,359
healthy for your jellies, but it's not necessary anymore for

557
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,720
a lot of those more common beginner species.

558
00:28:24,079 --> 00:28:28,440
Speaker 2: Okay, good to know. And now for maybe more advanced hobbyists,

559
00:28:28,759 --> 00:28:33,359
what would be kind of a challenging but not impossible.

560
00:28:32,799 --> 00:28:36,160
Speaker 5: Species, right right, Yeah, The first one that comes to

561
00:28:36,279 --> 00:28:39,759
mind is the blue can involve jellyfish. It's one of

562
00:28:39,839 --> 00:28:43,240
my other favorite species. They're relatively new to the hobby,

563
00:28:43,599 --> 00:28:46,519
and the biggest challenge with them is that they're super

564
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:49,119
active and they love to eat, so you just got

565
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:51,720
to keep them fed, like all the time. They're really

566
00:28:51,799 --> 00:28:55,599
gorgeous species. They're bright blue. They look unnatural, they're look

567
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,720
like a soda or something like the color that they are.

568
00:28:58,119 --> 00:29:00,599
But yeah, so they're totally gorgeous and have a lot

569
00:29:00,599 --> 00:29:04,319
of fun personality and they're not terribly difficult to keep.

570
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:06,079
But again, it's just like you got to keep them

571
00:29:06,319 --> 00:29:09,039
really well fed. So feeding them a couple times a

572
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,200
day is ideal if possible.

573
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 2: I had two kind of questions I just thought about

574
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:16,839
when you talked about mixed species. Now, are there jellyfish

575
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,519
that really you don't put together or are they kind

576
00:29:19,519 --> 00:29:21,440
of able to get along with each other for the

577
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:21,880
most part.

578
00:29:22,279 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 5: Yeah, So typically with jellyfish, you want to keep them

579
00:29:25,599 --> 00:29:28,559
with other members of like the same species. So like

580
00:29:28,599 --> 00:29:30,400
if you keep moon jellies, you can keep a couple

581
00:29:30,519 --> 00:29:32,599
moon jellies, but you don't want to mix them with

582
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,440
other species. Now, there are some exceptions to that. A

583
00:29:36,559 --> 00:29:40,839
lot of your tropical species. So like your blubber jellies,

584
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,640
your spotted lagoon jellies, those guys tend to do well together,

585
00:29:46,119 --> 00:29:49,039
whereas like your sea netals, your lion's manes, those are

586
00:29:49,119 --> 00:29:51,960
the more like stingy species that will try to eat

587
00:29:52,079 --> 00:29:55,359
other species that they can. So my typical advice is,

588
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,599
if you're like a beginning hobbyist or looking to get

589
00:29:58,599 --> 00:30:01,640
into jellyfish, stick to ones species, even the species that

590
00:30:01,759 --> 00:30:05,200
you can keep together. There are some challenges associated with that.

591
00:30:05,839 --> 00:30:07,640
You know, if you're looking to get into jellyfish keeping,

592
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:09,599
I would kind of find a species you like and

593
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:10,960
stick with that one to begin with.

594
00:30:11,319 --> 00:30:14,079
Speaker 2: Okay, good advice. I actually had another question, but of

595
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:18,440
course I lost it. So oh I now remember so

596
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,160
you know with kind of reef tanks, you know, versus

597
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:22,799
kind of fish only you know, we know there are

598
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:26,039
sort of some water quality parameters that maybe are going

599
00:30:26,079 --> 00:30:28,920
to be much more important or you know that they're

600
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,440
much more fragile. How would you say kind of water

601
00:30:31,519 --> 00:30:33,319
quality parameters for like a reef tank versus like a

602
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,799
jellyfish tank would compare like, are there things that are

603
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,079
going to be more critical or you know, less critical?

604
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,039
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's actually a great question, And I typically compare

605
00:30:44,559 --> 00:30:48,039
jellyfish to keeping soft corals in terms of water quality.

606
00:30:48,559 --> 00:30:52,400
They're not super picky about like nitrates or phosphates. You

607
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:54,440
don't want them to be crazy high, but it's not

608
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,559
like you know, keeping LPs or sps where you got

609
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,400
to really keep an eye on those water parameters. And

610
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,400
then as far as like you know, I know reef

611
00:31:02,519 --> 00:31:06,880
keepers keep close tabs on alkalinity or calcium or magnesium.

612
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:10,480
Those parameters are important for jellyfish, but they don't use

613
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:14,000
up those elements, so you don't have to worry about

614
00:31:14,079 --> 00:31:16,880
like dosing a jellyfish tank because they don't have a skeleton,

615
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,119
they're not going to use those elements, but they still

616
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,400
want them to kind of be you know, similar to

617
00:31:21,519 --> 00:31:22,279
natural seawater.

618
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 2: Okay, good, Yeah, I was curious about that. Let's kind

619
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:28,000
of move on, and you've been really really active with

620
00:31:28,079 --> 00:31:31,200
trying to kind of enhance and get the jellyfish community

621
00:31:31,279 --> 00:31:33,680
sort of united. Can you tell us a little bit

622
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:37,319
about the Jellyfish Owners Association that you began and what

623
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,079
its purpose is and some of maybe the cool important

624
00:31:40,119 --> 00:31:41,599
things that have come out of it so far.

625
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,759
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, you know, as a person raising jellyfish, you know,

626
00:31:45,839 --> 00:31:48,279
and I've been doing it for you know, over a

627
00:31:48,359 --> 00:31:51,319
decade now I realized that, you know, if you go

628
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,759
to Google right now and look up information on keeping jellyfish,

629
00:31:55,079 --> 00:31:57,880
I would estimate that eighty to ninety percent of what

630
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,480
you read is going to be wrong or misguided, which

631
00:32:00,599 --> 00:32:03,359
I realized. You know, when you're doing any hobby, any

632
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:05,680
niche hobby, there's going to be a certain percentage of

633
00:32:05,759 --> 00:32:10,039
wrong information. But like with jellyfish, it's just astronomical, and

634
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:12,319
so there's so many people trying to get into the

635
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,400
hobby and they just end up misguided or have the

636
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,920
wrong ideas because it's like so much of that information

637
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:21,640
that's right up in front and you know, in your face,

638
00:32:21,799 --> 00:32:24,640
is just wrong or misleading. So the purpose of the

639
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,839
Jellyfish Owners Association was to create like a place, like

640
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:33,519
a centralized location where jellyfish keepers could exchange information. So

641
00:32:33,599 --> 00:32:35,880
I wanted it to be jellyfish specific, because you know,

642
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:39,079
there are forums out there for aquariums and sometimes jellyfish

643
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:41,279
come up, but a lot of the times those people,

644
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,039
you know, haven't kept jellyfish, or they're just sort of

645
00:32:44,079 --> 00:32:47,279
regurgitating information that they read on the internet. At some point.

646
00:32:47,599 --> 00:32:50,160
But then I also wanted to create a space where

647
00:32:50,799 --> 00:32:54,640
jellyfish keepers of all backgrounds could come together. So we've

648
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,559
got people who have never kept a jellyfish and they're

649
00:32:57,599 --> 00:32:59,720
just doing research, you know, they're in that early phase.

650
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,839
And then we have some of the greatest jellyfish keepers

651
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,799
in the world in that group everybody in between. So

652
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,440
I just wanted this space where we could all talk

653
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,880
about jellyfish and come up with ideas, and we could

654
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:13,920
all kind of fact check each other. You know, it's

655
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,759
not one person and it's not one company controlling all

656
00:33:16,799 --> 00:33:20,480
the information. It's everybody in the jellyfish community, so that

657
00:33:20,559 --> 00:33:23,359
we can all come up with great ideas and kind

658
00:33:23,359 --> 00:33:26,920
of exchange, you know, how we're doing jellyfish keeping from

659
00:33:27,079 --> 00:33:30,640
you know, all parts of the world. So and then yeah,

660
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:32,559
as far as some of the cool stuff that's happened,

661
00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:35,000
I mean, really the coolest thing has just been like

662
00:33:35,119 --> 00:33:37,880
the connections that have been made not only between me

663
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:41,519
and other people, but members of the community. Because again

664
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:45,839
there's people from you know, all continents keeping jellyfish and

665
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,839
talking about it. And again it's helping hobbyists talk with

666
00:33:49,039 --> 00:33:52,000
public aquarists and with scientists and we're all kind of

667
00:33:52,079 --> 00:33:55,279
exchanging information so that we're not you know, getting trapped

668
00:33:55,319 --> 00:33:57,480
in our own bubble, you know, where we're kind of

669
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:00,319
checking our the way we do things with other other

670
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,599
types of jelly keepers. So they the communication and the

671
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:05,640
connections that have been made have been really cool to

672
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:06,960
kind of watch unfold.

673
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,159
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's excellent and definitely, you know, there's obviously so

674
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,400
much to be learned, either from public aquerius or from

675
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:15,400
the hobbyists who have really you know, done a lot

676
00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,800
of in this area. So yeah, it sounds like a

677
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:20,880
really great group. I just as you know, I just joined,

678
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,280
so I'll try to learn a little bit more about

679
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,480
it as well. And I know you mentioned this as well,

680
00:34:28,679 --> 00:34:32,280
and you know a really really big project you're the

681
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,519
Jellyfish Compendium. Can you tell us a little bit about

682
00:34:34,559 --> 00:34:38,079
that and obviously goals and you know where you are

683
00:34:38,159 --> 00:34:38,760
with it so far.

684
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:39,639
Speaker 4: Yeah.

685
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 5: So I started that I think either late twenty twenty

686
00:34:44,039 --> 00:34:46,760
one or early twenty two, but I was suffering from

687
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:49,920
some major burnout. You know, I've been raising jellyfish for

688
00:34:50,079 --> 00:34:53,280
years and running a jellyfish company and all that, and

689
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:55,559
one of the things I was feeling was that I

690
00:34:55,639 --> 00:34:58,800
didn't feel like I was, you know, contributing to something permanent.

691
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,599
Like the science of jelly fish fascinates me, and I

692
00:35:01,679 --> 00:35:04,320
had gotten really interested in the taxonomy as well, like

693
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:08,639
diving into identifying jellyfish and understanding all the different species.

694
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,920
And again I noticed that with like the information you

695
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,719
know in the world of jellyfish, even in the scientific community,

696
00:35:16,039 --> 00:35:19,440
the information is so sparse and spread out and difficult

697
00:35:19,519 --> 00:35:22,199
to access. You know, even if you're a scientist or

698
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:26,559
public aquarus, it's like impossible to find consistent information. If

699
00:35:26,599 --> 00:35:28,840
you're raising a species of jellyfish and you want to

700
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,519
find a picture of what the babies look like or

701
00:35:31,599 --> 00:35:33,760
what the larvae look like. Most of the time, if

702
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,000
you google it, you'll find nothing, or you'll find a

703
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:39,119
you know, hand drawn photo from its original description in

704
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,280
eighteen fifty something, you know or whatever. So I kind

705
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:46,280
of got this idea to set out to photograph every

706
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,639
species of jellyfish I could get my hands on, and

707
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,840
to photograph each stage of their life cycle, so everything

708
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,199
I could get my hands on. And then I kind

709
00:35:55,199 --> 00:35:57,159
of wanted to put this all in one place and

710
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,280
make it freely accessible to anybody. You can just go there,

711
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,400
you know, scroll down and find the jellyfish you're looking for,

712
00:36:04,039 --> 00:36:06,000
and then you can find pictures of its life cycle,

713
00:36:06,119 --> 00:36:08,840
you can find information on how to keep them, you know,

714
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,840
and everything in between. And so it's kind of an

715
00:36:12,559 --> 00:36:16,159
amalgamation of my own personal experience and anecdote and then

716
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,159
also me digging through the literature and trying to summarize

717
00:36:20,199 --> 00:36:21,639
it and put it in one place so that we

718
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:24,760
have an easy kind of way to access it. So yeah,

719
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:26,760
I'm just kind of hoping to make it sort of

720
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:30,719
a legacy project. So I would love to document every

721
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:35,079
species of jellyfish. That's a really bold goal, especially because

722
00:36:35,119 --> 00:36:38,280
we're describing new species pretty much all the time. But

723
00:36:38,679 --> 00:36:41,159
it's just something to work on as I can. So

724
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,840
I started accumulating species. You know, I had a handful

725
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:48,119
of species that were useful for you know, raising to sell,

726
00:36:48,679 --> 00:36:52,039
but a lot of species are just not really commercially

727
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:55,599
of interest but are still super fascinating. So I am

728
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:59,079
up to fifty seven species in my collection at the moment,

729
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:03,079
which I leave is the largest collection of jellyfish in

730
00:37:03,159 --> 00:37:07,360
the US, not the world, but I believe that, Yeah,

731
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:09,119
it's the largest collection in the US right now.

732
00:37:09,679 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty impressive. So have you taken on a

733
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:14,960
man of war yet? Portuguese man of war?

734
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:20,280
Speaker 5: That is like one species I have zero experience with. Yeah,

735
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:22,840
they're just they're not common here in North Carolina. I

736
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,679
know in Florida you get like a good wind, especially

737
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:28,599
like in the winter months, it seems like you'll see

738
00:37:28,639 --> 00:37:31,719
them wash up. But I've only seen one and it

739
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,199
was in Florida and it was dead when I found it,

740
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:36,079
So I haven't had the chance to work with them,

741
00:37:36,119 --> 00:37:38,679
but that's something I would be very interested to try out.

742
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:41,039
Speaker 2: Yeah, that the same experience. I was on the East

743
00:37:41,079 --> 00:37:43,159
coast and just walking the beach and they were like,

744
00:37:43,559 --> 00:37:45,559
like you said, a couple mostly gotten blown over there.

745
00:37:45,679 --> 00:37:49,360
They're beautiful but dead. So yeah, pretty interesting.

746
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 5: Now I do work with box jellyfish. I have I

747
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,480
think six or seven species of box jellies right now.

748
00:37:55,159 --> 00:37:57,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, have you decided whether you want to put up

749
00:37:57,559 --> 00:37:59,639
a little webcam for your jelly fit.

750
00:38:00,079 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 5: I've thought about that. Yeah, Like I know that some

751
00:38:02,599 --> 00:38:07,320
public aquames do those, like live jellycams super popular, And

752
00:38:07,599 --> 00:38:10,559
I'm actually moving my facility right now and I'm kind

753
00:38:10,559 --> 00:38:14,440
of building my dream jellyfish lab. So when that's all done.

754
00:38:14,519 --> 00:38:16,480
When the dust is settled from that, I might actually

755
00:38:16,559 --> 00:38:18,079
consider setting something like that up.

756
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be really cool. Yeah, a lot of really

757
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:25,199
interesting species there. So I think in one of our

758
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,880
corresponds is you had mentioned something about hitchhikers. Can you

759
00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:31,599
maybe talk a little bit about hitchhiker jellyfish?

760
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:34,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, this has become kind of a you know, a

761
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:38,559
little niche interest of mine recently is jellyfish ending up

762
00:38:38,599 --> 00:38:42,719
in spots where they're not supposed to. So people who've

763
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:46,559
kept reef tanks may have come across like upside down

764
00:38:46,599 --> 00:38:49,639
jellies are very common hitchhikers and reef tanks. They come

765
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:52,800
in on live rock or corals or whatever, and then

766
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:58,039
other little hydrozoe and jellyfish are common hitchhikers and reef

767
00:38:58,079 --> 00:39:00,199
aquraremes and they usually show up and then you know,

768
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:02,920
go away on their own and people get curious about them.

769
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,639
But I think it was last year I had just

770
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,440
a little thirty gallon tank set up for some baslets

771
00:39:09,679 --> 00:39:12,159
kind of a side interest of mine, or deep water baslets.

772
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,440
But I had tossed some live rock in there from

773
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:18,320
my reef tank to help speed up that cycle. And

774
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,800
a couple of months into it being set up, I

775
00:39:21,039 --> 00:39:24,960
noticed little box jellyfish growing on the sides of the tank.

776
00:39:25,079 --> 00:39:28,000
So their larval stage, you know, grows on the sides

777
00:39:28,199 --> 00:39:31,000
or on a rock or the glass or whatever. So

778
00:39:31,079 --> 00:39:33,519
I noticed these these little box jellyfish growing there, and

779
00:39:33,599 --> 00:39:36,519
I was like, that's something totally different, you know, like

780
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:40,480
upside down jellyfish are essentially harmless. They're nice, friendly, little

781
00:39:40,599 --> 00:39:43,880
little species of jellyfish that I'm over here with, you know,

782
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,159
who knows what. I could tell it was a box jellyfish,

783
00:39:46,199 --> 00:39:49,920
but I don't know the species. It could be anything.

784
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:53,400
So I started raising those and have had some success

785
00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:56,039
raising them. They're really tough. But I started digging into

786
00:39:56,079 --> 00:39:59,599
the literature and there have been species of box jellyfish

787
00:39:59,679 --> 00:40:03,760
which have been only identified from aquariums, Like they've never

788
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,679
been seen in the wild. They've only been known by

789
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,519
showing up in people's aquariums. And I'm not the only

790
00:40:09,599 --> 00:40:12,159
person either that's found them in their you know, hobby

791
00:40:12,519 --> 00:40:15,119
aquarium That have been other people, even in the Jellyfish

792
00:40:15,159 --> 00:40:18,760
Owners Association, people have posted videos of box shelly's that

793
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:21,719
have cropped up in their tanks. So that makes me wonder, like,

794
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,599
how often is this happening, and how many species are

795
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:28,519
there that are potentially undescribed or unknown to science, that

796
00:40:28,559 --> 00:40:31,360
are just living in people's aquariums in their homes. And

797
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:34,519
you know, a jellyfish won't live very long in a

798
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:37,159
standard reef tank. It'll get sucked right into the power

799
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:39,800
heads or down the overflow. So I think, you know,

800
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,840
you could have jellyfish growing in your reef tank and

801
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,519
you wouldn't even know it. If you didn't catch it

802
00:40:44,599 --> 00:40:46,960
at the right time when those babies were just born,

803
00:40:47,199 --> 00:40:50,199
then they may you know, disappear. So in the future,

804
00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:52,639
I would like to start buying up a whole bunch

805
00:40:52,679 --> 00:40:55,639
of live rock and stuff from all over the world

806
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:58,519
and just see what, you know, what starts growing out

807
00:40:58,559 --> 00:41:02,239
of it, because I'm very by what's growing in people's

808
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:03,519
aquariums around the world.

809
00:41:03,519 --> 00:41:05,159
Speaker 2: Like a box of chocolates exactly.

810
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, you really have no idea what you're going to

811
00:41:07,519 --> 00:41:10,320
end up with, and there's whole new types of chocolate

812
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:11,039
growing in there.

813
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,079
Speaker 2: So have you had a chance to get any of

814
00:41:14,119 --> 00:41:17,960
the box jellies that you saw, like identified or they're

815
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:18,800
still kind of unknown?

816
00:41:19,119 --> 00:41:22,599
Speaker 5: They are currently unknown. I just sent I have three

817
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:25,880
unidentified species right now, and I sent them off to

818
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:28,880
be DNA bar coded, so that means the lab is

819
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,920
going to take them and extract their DNA and compare

820
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,280
it to other ones in the database, so they can

821
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,360
either tell me, oh, this is that species, or they

822
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,599
can say this isn't in the database, and that either

823
00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:42,119
means that it's a new species or it just hasn't

824
00:41:42,199 --> 00:41:46,159
been entered yet. So waiting patiently on that. I don't

825
00:41:46,159 --> 00:41:48,360
know how long that's going to take, but very curious

826
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:49,519
to see what that ends up. Being.

827
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,880
Speaker 2: Very cool, very cool. Well, unfortunately I think we're out

828
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,480
of time, Travis, So I want to thank you a

829
00:41:57,599 --> 00:42:01,239
lot and our producer, Mark Winner for making the show possible. Travis,

830
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:04,360
did you have any final words of wisdom on jellyfish

831
00:42:04,639 --> 00:42:06,360
or aquaria or life in general?

832
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 5: That is a that's a great question. Well, firstly, I

833
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,639
appreciate you having me on. I always love a good

834
00:42:12,679 --> 00:42:16,480
excuse to talk about jellyfish and aquarium's in general with

835
00:42:16,679 --> 00:42:19,400
other like minded aquarian people. But yeah, as far as

836
00:42:19,519 --> 00:42:22,920
jellyfish keeping goes, I think the biggest thing is just

837
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:26,360
do the research, you know, join groups like the Jellyfish

838
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,599
Owners Association, or just you know, poke around the Internet

839
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,800
and try and filter out information because that that's like

840
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:35,519
your biggest tool with keeping jellyfish is just do the

841
00:42:35,559 --> 00:42:37,400
research ahead of time so you don't have to do

842
00:42:37,519 --> 00:42:39,639
all that trial and error so that you know, hopefully

843
00:42:39,679 --> 00:42:42,199
you're doing you know, great job right from the get go.

844
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,880
Speaker 2: So yeah, very cool. And you know what, I actually

845
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,199
thought of one quick, one more quick question, which which

846
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:49,320
was I forgot to ask you about lifespan, So like,

847
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:52,199
what's kind of your average lifespan for like your beginner

848
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,480
jellies that you were talking about and maybe some maybe

849
00:42:54,519 --> 00:42:55,119
some of the other ones.

850
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:57,079
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm glad you asked that because this is one

851
00:42:57,119 --> 00:42:59,800
of my favorite questions and it's another one of those

852
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:03,440
myths that I see like all the time because people,

853
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,719
you know, are upset that jellyfish have short lifespans. I

854
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:09,760
always hear that they only live a couple of months

855
00:43:10,039 --> 00:43:12,440
or less than a year. But yeah, like if we

856
00:43:12,559 --> 00:43:15,239
take a look at the moon jellyfish, for example, it's

857
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:17,800
pretty common for them to live two to four years

858
00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:20,039
in captivity, and that all has to do with, you know,

859
00:43:20,119 --> 00:43:22,000
how well they're taken care of and all of that.

860
00:43:22,559 --> 00:43:25,119
But yeah, moon jelly's have been kept all the way

861
00:43:25,199 --> 00:43:28,239
up to I think fourteen years in captivity at some

862
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:32,519
public aquariums. Again, they don't have organs to fail, you know,

863
00:43:32,559 --> 00:43:35,719
they're really simple, so if they're in really good conditions,

864
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,039
they'll keep going for a long time. That myth that

865
00:43:39,159 --> 00:43:42,320
they only live a couple of months is totally untrue.

866
00:43:42,639 --> 00:43:45,559
And you know, every new species we're keeping that we're

867
00:43:45,599 --> 00:43:48,360
learning more about. It seems like we push that lifespan,

868
00:43:48,559 --> 00:43:49,679
you know, longer and longer.

869
00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:51,920
Speaker 2: Good to know. Yeah, I was wondering about that, so

870
00:43:52,199 --> 00:43:54,519
appreciate that. Yeah, I should have asked that sooner, but

871
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:59,000
that's fine anyway. Please be sure to check out Travis's

872
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:03,119
social media, which we'll have on his Quaranmania episode page.

873
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:05,920
If you have any questions, comments, or i'd use for

874
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:09,039
a show, email me at doctor Roy at petlife Radio

875
00:44:09,159 --> 00:44:12,039
dot com. That's d R R O y at petlife

876
00:44:12,119 --> 00:44:15,239
Radio dot com. Until next time, please visit your local

877
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:18,360
cram stores he youre tanks clean and definitely consider jelly

878
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:19,480
pitch to your next day.

879
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:25,039
Speaker 4: Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife

880
00:44:25,119 --> 00:44:26,280
Radios dot com