Pet Jellyfish Facts: Feeding Jellyfish and Aquarium Maintenance

 You may find this hard to believe but a jellyfish tank is actually easier to maintain than a standard saltwater aquarium. You can learn how to keep your pet jellyfish alive and healthy in no time at all. Jellyfish have slower metabolisms than fish. You can use a smaller filtration unit and water parameters will still remain well within acceptable tolerances. A 25% water change twice a month is more than sufficient to keep your tank clean. You may occasionally have to remove algae from the walls of your tank but this would need to be done with virtually any tank.
There isn't even too much reason to be concerned about a jellyfish sting. Of the three most popular jellyfish kept in home aquariums, the moon jellyfish has the most potent sting. A moon jellyfish sting is typically not fatal or even dangerous to humans. Their sting is no more serious than a bee sting. Of course just like a bee sting, everyone reacts differently to a particular animal's sting. Keep vinegar handy to neutralize the sting area. Vinegar is not a treatment for the sting but it will prevent further nematocysts (stinging cells) from firing. What do you feed a pet jellyfish? That depends on the size of the jellyfish in question. All jellyfish are carnivores. Smaller jellyfish thrive on zooplankton. Larger jellyfish often eat fish and crustaceans. Of course the larger the jellyfish, the larger the prey it can consume.
Jellyfish in a home aquarium can be fed brine shrimp. Brine shrimp is available at any fish store that carries saltwater fish. They are cheap to buy and keep well in a refrigerator for a week or even longer. Many saltwater enthusiasts prefer to raise their own brine shrimp. If you provide your jellyfish with sufficient nutrients their mass will grow accordingly until they reach their maximum growth potential. If you need to spend a weekend out of town you can even skip feeding them as long as you feed them a little extra before and after. Larger jellies can be fed ghost shrimp or other inexpensive feeder shrimp, or feeder fish.
If the idea of constantly buying or breeding and maintaining live food seems needlessly time consuming there is an alternative. You can even order frozen plankton for your pet jellyfish online.