Moon Jelly Culture

Aquarium of the Bay successfully grows these beautiful, fragile animals and has supplied them to other aquariums.

Adult Moon Jellies (Aurelia aurita) usually live one year or less in the wild but may live longer in the more sheltered world of an aquarium tank.  Their small prey is captured by trapping it in the mucus-covered bell and oral arms.

Moon Jelly females produce eggs which are fertilized by males and then released as larvae called planula. The planula swim away and settle on the bottom and become polyps, which eventually start budding off baby jellies, called ephyra, that grow into adult Moon Jellies.