Made at the Aquarium: biologists expand a jellyfish breeding program
The Primorsky Aquarium is taking its jellyfish breeding program to a new level of quality: the scientific and educational center has received aquarium systems that will enable its biologists to increase the number of cultured species.
“This jellyfish breeding program has been successfully run for some two years, and now the Aquarium is home for moon, upside-down and clinging jellyfish raised by our team,” said Marat Khaidarov, Head of the Exotic Aquatic Organisms Department. “However, the equipment which we used in our work before had been purchased during the Aquarium’s construction, and it can cope just with a part of the current tasks. The new equipment - tanks for six stand-alone systems - will let us grow such “capricious” species as predatory venomous lion’s mane jellyfish, Japanese sea nettles and flame jellyfish. Each of the species will be cultivated in a separate system of tanks.”
In addition to the research aspect, the jelly breeding programs certainly have a practical value – the Aquarium does not have to collect the animals from the wild for displaying them, and it is very important as availability of some species may vary. For example, since 2016 there have been no large aggregations of moon jellyfish reported in Peter the Great Bay.
Unfortunately, the lifespan of jellies is rather short – they live for about half a year, and some species, like the clinging jellyfish, live no longer than 2 months. In nature, most jellyfish can only be seen at certain times of year while at the Aquarium, regardless of the season, biologists create the necessary conditions for the invertebrates to reproduce all year round.