Spotted lagoon jelly

Description:

Spotted lagoon jellies have rounded bells and strange clumps of oral arms with club-like appendages that hang down below. These jellies love the sunlight, which fuels the growth of symbiotic algae in their tissues, giving them a greenish-brown to blue color in the wild. They harvest some of their food directly from the algae. Instead of a single mouth, they have many small mouth openings on their oral arms. Bell can be up to 6 inches wide. You can find spotted lagoon jellies in bays, harbors, and lagoons in the South Pacific Ocean. Interesting fact--most jellies stop feeding when they get old and begin to shrink.

Habitat:

This spotted lagoon jelly resides at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.