13 Different Types of Jellyfish You Should Know

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Jellyfish are saltwater organisms that don’t have most animal characteristics.

They don’t have any eyes or teeth, but they rule the ocean with their toxic stingers, and a grown man’s height is about the size of a jellyfish’s bell.

There are different types of jellyfish, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Humans eat jellyfish in some societies.

Some Asians remove excess water from the Rhizostomae species and eat it.

Jellyfish are rich in protein and sustainability, so they are an ideal food.

Also, people use them in science. The green fluorescent protein is a fluorescent marker for genes put into other cells.

Below is the list of the different types of jellyfish;

1. Crystal Jellyfish

The crystal jellyfish is the most giant hydrozoan jellyfish. A bioluminescent light shows up outside their bells when they get angry or start to move.

Their body is transparent, with about 100 tiny, delicate tentacles. Also, they can eat more than half their size jellyfish if they widen their mouths.

They mainly eat hydrozoans and comb jellyfish, making it hard to keep them in captivity.

This group of fish is in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America from spring to fall. Venomous jellyfish and humans prey on the crystal jellyfish.

Crystal jellyfish reproduce both sexually and asexually, like other jellyfish. They breed all year, resulting in new juvenile Medusae every two days at the very least. Further, polyps in this species live in colonies and can live for two years.

2. Lion’s Mane Jellyfish

The lion’s mane jellyfish is the largest jellyfish species. It has some specimens that look like blue whales.

Due to this jellyfish’s big size, its bell is seven feet across, and the length of its tentacles is 112 feet. There are almost 1,200 tentacles that make up their mane. Thus giving them their name.

There are lion’s mane jellyfish in the Arctic and North Pacific Oceans. Further, the tentacles of a lion’s mane jellyfish have millions of stinging cells that are dangerous to humans.

However, you’ll find the lion’s mane jellyfish primarily in cold water. The jellyfish don’t come into contact with people very often.

3. Bloodybelly Comb Jellyfish

Bloodybelly comb jellyfish travel through the water, beating their shimmering, hair-like cilia. Cilia are tiny hair-like projections that move them through the water.

This cilia movement produces a magnificent glittering light show with several colors. Though the bloody belly comb is a “showoff,” its red hue renders it invisible in deep water.

In the depths of the ocean, red looks very much like black. The crimson belly of this jellyfish also serves to disguise the bioluminescence glow of its meal. Thus keeping it extra secure from predators.

4. Moon Jellyfish

Moon jellyfish are one of the famous types of jellyfish, and we can find them in every ocean except the Arctic.

They have half circles on their bells that comprise reproductive tissues. Moon jellyfish are common in aquariums because their sting isn’t strong enough to get into your body and hurt you.

They glow in the dark when they are bumped. Moon jellyfish are bioluminescent and glow in the dark when they are bumped. Further, they are one of the jellyfish that people most often eat.

5. Cauliflower Jellyfish

A cauliflower jellyfish is a jellyfish that can sting, and it is part of the Cephea genus. People call them the “crown jellyfish” because their bells have a rounded crown-like structure.

The main threat to the jellyfish population is that a few fishing businesses are targeting them all over their range.

The reason is that they have a lot of value for the businesses. People like to eat cauliflower jellyfish as a gourmet food item.

China and Japan also use them for medicine. These stinging jellyfish used to be eaten by sea turtles and tangs, but now they are safe with them.

6. Deep Red Jellyfish

Deep red jellyfish live in the Arctic Sea, where the water is 3,000 feet below the surface. These jellyfish are much smaller than many other jellyfish, with a diameter of two centimeters.

Because deep red jellyfish don’t go through a polyp phase, we don’t know for sure how they reproduce. Scientists have called the deep red jellyfish “alien-like” because it has a lot of unique traits.

7. Flower Hat Jellyfish

Flower hat jellyfish are among the different types of jellyfish, and they are flamboyant. These jellyfish have a bright striped bell and rainbow tentacles flowing outward.

Also, they’re smaller than the lion’s mane jellyfish, with a diameter of six inches. Despite their small size, massive jellyfish swarms can make swimming difficult in the summer. We can also find them off the coast of Japan.

8. Box Jellyfish

The box jellyfish is a highly venomous species of jellyfish, and its name comes from its box-like appearance. It has one tentacle emerging from each of its four corners.

These jellyfish stay in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and along the northern Australian coastline. Their toxin is powerful enough to put humans into cardiac arrest.

Thus leading them to drown in shock before they can reach the coast. Painful welts and scars can last for several weeks for those who receive treatment.

9. White-spotted Jellyfish

White-spotted jellies stay in the warm, tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean. They don’t harm humans because they have very little venom.

Also, these jellyfish don’t use their venom to get food. Like oysters or sponges, whit-spotted jellyfish use their bodies to clean the water. Every day, they can remove more than 50 cubic meters of seawater from the water they live in.

10. Sea Wasp Jellyfish

The sea wasp jellyfish stays in Australian and Southeast Asian coastal waters. This is a giant cubozoan jellyfish with a bell of about eight inches and tentacles up to ten feet long.

The sea wasp is the most dangerous jellyfish, with the most potent and fastest venomous animal reaction. If you contact the ten-foot tentacles, it causes acute pain and cardiac failure. Thus resulting in the prey’s death in no time.

Further, sea wasps are a common food source for leatherback turtles and other large sea creatures.

11. Black Sea Nettle

Among the types of jellyfish, the black sea nettle is one of the largest. It has bells over three feet across and tentacles over twenty-five feet long. There’s little knowledge about these jellyfish because they live in the deep sea and are hard to catch.

Often, they grow deadly blooms in San Diego Bay. They usually live off the southern coast of California and Mexico’s Pacific coast. But we can find them in other places as well.

12. Atolla Jellyfish

It’s also known as Coronate Medusa Jelly and is worldwide. The Atolla, like most deep-sea organisms, possesses incredible bioluminescent qualities.

The bioluminescence of most deep-sea ocean inhabitants attracts prey. But this species utilizes it to keep itself from becoming prey! When the Atolla is attacked, it emits a succession of flashes that resemble an emergency siren. More predators are drawn in by the flashes that this species produces.

13. Fried Egg Jellyfish

The fried egg jellyfish is the last on our list of the different types of jellyfish. It spends much time sitting still, gently pulsing its bell, as it drifts through the water. Many short, club-like appendages come out of this jellyfish.

The jellyfish traps other animals and feeds on them through appendage holes. The Fried Egg Jellyfish likes to eat other jellyfish.

Dark purple is the color of these appendages most of the time. Even though they have stingers, the sting doesn’t hurt us much. Its sting is so weak that little fish might sometimes hide inside its tentacles in the open sea.

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