Jellyfish predicament
As someone who has spent hours peering over the sides of ferries and wharfs, entranced by the rhythmic pulsing and delicate beauty of jellyfish, I wish to offer my condolences to the Vancouver Aquarium’s new cross jellies. It seems a pair of them have arrived with a most unfortunate problem — a parasitic anemone that “looks like a large, thick, white blob” hanging from their gonads.
I don’t mean to anthropomorphize, but . . . yikes.
The aquarium’s press release explains that, once ingested by a cross jelly, the parasitic anemone begins to chow down on its host’s stomach tissues. This continues for 11 days, before the “jelly-dwelling anemone” migrates to the jelly’s sex organs. “It will continue to feed on the jelly for roughly 31 days, until it acquires its adult characteristics.”
If you’d like to get a firsthand look at this gonad-feeding parasite, stop by the aquarium ASAP. They expect the anemones to stay attached to the host jellies for another few days before dropping to the floor (where, if left alone, they would live out the rest of their life cycle.)
No word on whether the cross jellies are expected to make a full recovery (or require counseling).
For more interesting jellyfish facts, see the “Secrets of Jellyfish” in our Winter 2006 issue.