The moon jelly “the Gelee”

The body of this jellyfish is gelatinous and transparent, because its made in 98% of water. Hence, we gave it a nickname “the Gelee”. The moon jelly’s mouth is not used just for eating. When it can’t eat its whole dinner, it actually excretes it through its mouth. “The Gelee” stings its enemies in self-defence and in order to get its food. Luckily, it can’t really hurt humans. Its venom is not dangerous to us.

Could the moon jelly live with us on land ? Unfortunately, it’s impossible… “The Gelee” consists almost entirely of water and when washed up on shore, the sun dries up its body entirely. Sadly, it happens frequently as moon jellies lay their eggs near coastlines.

The moon jelly eats small plankton. What is plankton exactly? It’s a group of small creatures floating in the water. Even if they can move, they are too weak to actively resist currents and waves, so they just calmly drift.The moon jelly likes warmth, so it lives near the surface of the sea where water quickly warms up in the summer. “The Gelee” overwinters in a form of a small polyp hiding near various objects on the shallow seabed, for example on the shells of mussels.



Interesting facts

How can you tell whether a specific moon jelly is a boy or a girl? Boys have purple spots on their top, while girls’ spots are pink.