Asian moon jelly
Aurelia coerulea
Moon Jellyfish
Aurelia aurita
About
The moon jellyfish is a near-transparent drifter of a jelly, pulsing gently through open water rather than swimming with purpose. It grows to about 50 cm across and lives from the surface down to deep water.
Also known as: aurelia aurita, common jellyfish, moon jelly, common jellyfish
- Length
- 50 cm
- Depth
- up to 1250 m
How to tell it apart
Many pale jellyfish look alike from a distance. The moon jellyfish is easy to place once you see four horseshoe-shaped rings sitting in the middle of the bell, visible through the clear tissue from above.
Appearance
The bell is flat and saucer-shaped, almost see-through, fringed with a skirt of short, fine tentacles. It moves only weakly, mostly drifting with the current even while pulsing its bell.
Habitat
Found near the surface in open water, close to coasts and further offshore, and often drifts into brackish bays, fjords, and estuaries.
Behaviour
It has two very different life stages: a free-swimming jelly and a small stalked polyp that lives fixed to the seabed. The polyp can survive for months without feeding and can cope in poor conditions, including polluted water, before changing into the swimming form when the water warms or cools.
Did you know?
Its stinging cells cannot pierce human skin, so its sting is harmless to divers even on direct contact.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
