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Showing posts with label upside down jellyfish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upside down jellyfish. Show all posts

Saturday, August 16, 2014

upside down jellyfish @ pulau semakau shore - Aug 2014

The upside down jellyfish is a strange animal that lives most of its life upside down. This one was in a shallow intertidal lagoon and actually looked like a mass of algae at first glance. In fact, this jellyfish does have algae in its arms which it reveals to the sun when upside down. The algae (zooxanthellae) produces food via photosynthesis which it shares with the jellyfish. This explains why the jellyfish is usually found upside down with its arms containing the zooxanthellae exposed to the sun. It can also catch planktonic prey with its arms. This one was about 7cm in diameter.


Find out more about this unique species of jellyfish :