New jellyfish owner-few questions-overall health-feeding

[Ashmaads18]

Hi there, I'm a new jellyfish pet owner, have had 3 small jellyfish in a cubic 20, for a little over a week. Although so far I think we're doing well, I do have a few questions to further enhance their health. I see a lot of people talking about a stone pump (I think that's what they're calling it) to aerate the tank, improving the health of the jellyfish. Could someone perhaps attach a link to one of these pumps or maybe a video/photo of what this looks like and where it should go in the tank please? I know it's important to keep bubbles out of the area the jellys are in. Mine seem healthy, but they don't pulse all that often and from what I've read, aeration can help this?
Also, I've been feeding them the jellyfish art powdered food. I get each jelly out of the tank and into a bowl, and feed them there for 20 minutes before returning them to their tank. It's the only way I've found to cut down on the food sitting on the bottom of the tank, which I know is bad for the water but also drives me crazy! I like a clean tank. Is this way of feeding ok, or am I doing them harm moving them back and forth? Also is feeding them this way only once a day, Sufficient?
And lastly, would it be ok to introduce a couple more medium jellys within the next month or would that be too many in this tank or too soon to introduce new ones to the existing ones?
Thanks so much! Excited for this new journey, have been fascinated by jellyfish my whole life, so being able to have them as pets in this beautiful tank is quite a treat!
Ashley

[James]

Hi Ashley

Firstly welcome to this forum!

The comments about the air pump were from people with the MK1 Pulse 80. This tank sometimes suffered from low oxygen levels which the moon jellies don't like. The Orbit 20 doesn't seem to share this issue so there should be no reason to add an air stone.

I don't have much experience with the Jellyfish Art powder food so I can't really comment on this. YOu could try hatching out some live baby artemia? The eggs should be available from most good aquarium stores and there are lots of guides to hatching them online. Its quite easy to so and you can store them in the fridge to give you a few days worth. Moon jellies really love these and they polute your water far less because they are live and free swimming. You will soon know if you are harming them. They will develop holes or start to shrink.

Actually the more jellies you have in the tank the less uneaten food there is to pollute the water. I find the water quality of the tank is actually better when the tank is heavily stocked over lightly stocked.

[Ashmaads18]

Thank you so much for your reply! Ok good to know about the pump. No holes, but think perhaps they are starting to shrink. They seem to be pulsing more after the 20% water change I did last week, but one of the definitely looks smaller than the rest whereas they all used to be very similar in size. I will look into hatching the brine shrimp, I've heard hat can be a lot of work but also very beneficial, so I'll give it a try. Other than that is there anything else I could be doing to improve their health? I test the water every other day and remove all uneaten food quickly but no matter what I do I can't help but feel like they could be healthier. I will hopefully be able to get 3 more soon and maybe that will help. My current water is below. Are these numbers ideal?
32 ppt salinity
7.5 ph
.25 ammonia
.5 NO2
0-20 NO3

Thanks again. I really want to keep some healthy and happy jellys!

[James]

Your parameters seem okay apart from ammonia which should be zero really. What test kit are you using for this?

You could try some additional foods like this cubic jellyfish food: http://www.pbnjellies.com/products/cubic-jellyfish-food

I might be biased because I work for Cubic but we tested numerous other coral foods and small powder foods and found that although, most of them should technically grow moon jellyfish, the jellies either didn't grow or their health suffered over long term trials. The food we came up with actually grew moons faster than live artemia in our trials. I would recommend a mixture of foods if possible.

[Ashmaads18]

I am using a Deep Six swing arm hydrometer for salinity, an API tube test kit for the ammonia and an API test strip kit for the rest. I have been purchasing the DI freshwater from my local aquarium store and mixing in Oceanic salt. I have a 5 gallon bucket of it going at all times so it has time to mix properly. I also have some live rock in the bottom of the tank with the other pieces that came with it. I also add in a capful of "JellyBio Maintain - a blend of beneficial bacteria for continued breakdown of waste" that I got from Jellyfish Art once a week when I do the 20% water change. But for the life of me I cannot get the ammonia to stay at 0, and it seems to be the one thing that is always off. Is there a way to keep this lower that I'm missing? I've read about API having somethign called AMMO LOCK that converts ammonia to a non-toxic form but I don't know if this applies to the jelly tank strictly fish tanks?

When you say "The food we came up with actually grew moons faster than live artemia in our trials" are you talking about the food in the link you provided? I will definitely purchase some once it comes back in stock. The jellyfish are definitely shrinking, it is not my imagination as I'd hoped.

I'm thinking if I can get the better food and figure out a way to keep the ammonia down to zero, they will be happier? But I'm at a loss on the ammonia issue.

Thank you so much for all your help, this is making me feel much better that I'm doing the right stuff. I've been reading a ton of articles and whatnot but its nice to talk with someone who really knows what they're talking about! One last question, and maybe it is dumb - but I live close to the beach in San Diego, would it be good to A) use real saltwater from the ocean? and OR B) collect the jellyfish from Mission Bay where they are currently being seen in the hundreds? Or are wild jellys and actual sea water too unpredictable?

THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH!!!

[Ashmaads18]

Is this the same food? This is the only other place I can find it in the US. I don't want to wait to order it if I can help it but don't want to get the wrong stuff or an older version or something.

http://www.championlighting.com/product ... id=8000003

[James]

We have just been talking with he guys at Sunset Marine Labs and they have reported an increase in the jellyfish's activity when an air stone is added to the tank so this may actually be worth a try. This is also what Marine Depot have been recommending and they show you how to do it in their video here.



Ammo lock should be fine to use. We use Seachem Prime in our jellyfish aquaculture tanks and haven't had any problems. The Ammonia should disappear as the tank matures anyway.

If you have access to natural sea water and wild jellies that it great! See what other species you can find, there will probably be combs at some times of your and they make an amazing display. I would use natural sea water over synthetic sea water for jellies any day.

[James]

Is this the same food? This is the only other place I can find it in the US. I don't want to wait to order it if I can help it but don't want to get the wrong stuff or an older version or something.

http://www.championlighting.com/product ... id=8000003

Yeah, that's the food. It is also now being sold via Exotic Aquaculture: http://www.exoticaquaculture.com/food/

[Ashmaads18]

ok I have ordered the cubic food. I'm really hoping that helps them to grow, in the last couple days 2 of them have started shrinking at a much faster rate than I even thought possible. I'm afraid I may lose them soon. I've quit transferring them to a separate bowl to feed them as I hear his can cut down on their ability to feed properly do I've been feeding them inside the tank. I know they are getting it because their bellies are all full by the time the food is settled. I just don't understand why they are shrinking so fast. Pulsing actually seems to have regulated, not too slow or too fast, and the water tested the same today.

I just ordered some of the seachem ammonia stuff and chemipure blue and hopefully that combined with new food will help. I hate to keep just buying stuff but at this point I'm in too deep lol. I keep thinking I'm one step away from getting it just right. If not, I'll look into adding the air pump (thank you for the video!) and perhaps hatching the live shrimp...that's if I have any jellys left to feed :( getting rather discouraged. do you think I should be feeding them more than once a day or would that do nothing more than pollute the tank?

Looks like I may be heading to the beach with a kayak and snorkel soon. If I do use real ocean water, I'm assuming is need to somehow filter it first right?

Thanks again for your time and al your help, I really really appreciate it.
Ashley

[Ashmaads18]

I had another thought. It's been really hot in San Diego the last few days and I don't have AC, I just checked the water temp and its 78. I don't know what it was before the heat wave unfortunately I never really checked it. Is 78 too hot, or could the rise in temp be what started their rapid shrinking? It's supposed to cool off tomorrow so I guess I'll find out if that's the issue and I'll direct a fan towards their tank until then. But over the summer maybe I need to get a chiller. What type of chiller would you recommend? Do you think this has had any bearing on their health the last few days? Sorry for all the questions, just really trying to save them before it's too late.