Australian jellyfish

Jellyfish drawing
  • Relatives: Rhizostomatidae
  • Habitat: Pacific, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Mexico
  • Diet: plankton
  • Life expectancy: 9 months
  • Reproduction: sexual and asexual
Jellyfish habitat

The Australian jellyfish floats seemingly weightlessly through the water with its blue-spotted bell. A uniform flow in the jellyfish kreisel tank at the Darwineum allows it to calmly make its circles. Jellyfish are true survival artists. Without brain, heart and skeleton they have managed to survive every continental drift and every climate change. In doing so, the multicellular organisms have hardly changed for 500 million years. The Australian jellyfish consists of 99 % water – 1 percent is then allotted to diet, digestion and reproduction.
Instead of tentacles, the jellyfish have oral tubular arms which are filled with stinging cells. They filter the plankton from the water with these.

Many other species of jellyfish such as Mediterranean jellyfish, cannonball jellyfish or compass jellyfish also live at the Darwineum and Polarium. There are about 20 species in total. The Rostock Zoo is particularly successful in the breeding of jellyfish, which is regarded as extremely difficult due to the high sensitivity of jellyfish.

You can experience these and many other animals at Rostock Zoo, home to 4,500 animals in 450 different species from all over the world.