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Bluebottle jellyfish / Indo-Pacific Man of War

Physalia utriculus

Description:

A small jellyfish but quite distinctive and easy to identify. It is bright blue and has an air filled bladder that causes it to float on top of the water rather than drifting through the water like other jellyfish. For such a small thing - the air bladder is only an inch or two long - the tentacles on this jellyfish pack a surprisingly painful sting. You can see the main stinging tentacle coiled up in the shallow water to the bottom right of the picture. This is a smaller variant of the Portuguese Man of War jellyfish (Physalia physalis), which can have an air bladder from 4 to 12 inches long!

Habitat:

Quite common around the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand. They seem to be either seasonal or drift around in groups - I'm not sure which. You can go for months and not see one, and then the day you do see one, there will generally be dozens of them around.

Notes:

If you know that you were stung by a bluebottle jellyfish, then the best treatment is to immerse the area of the sting in hot water (as hot as you can stand), or a hot shower. If hot water is not available, then ice packs can help reduce swelling and pain. HOWEVER - if you are not sure what kind of jellyfish caused the sting, then vinegar is the best option, as this is a better treatment for other jellyfish stings - such as the box jellyfish which is another common one around Australia. ANY jellyfish sting has the potential to lead to anaphylactic shock, so any chest pains or difficulty breathing should be a signal to call for emergency medical help immediately.

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Grum
Spotted by
Grum

New South Wales, Australia

Spotted on Dec 21, 2012
Submitted on Dec 21, 2012

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