If you visit our lake anytime soon you may encounter a rare visitor. Freshwater Jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbyi) are a nonindigenous aquatic species that are sometimes found in this area. Also known as the peach blossom fish, they are indigenous to China along the Yangtze river. They were probably introduced with aquatic plants that had been imported from China.
The jelly has been reported in every state except those that have extremely cold winters. Like all jellyfish, it posseses nymatocysts for stinging prey. They do not sting humans because the nematocysts cannot penetrate our skin. They eat zooplankton and small fish eggs. Crayfish are apparently the only real predator of this jellyfish.
If you would like to know more about this interesting creature, USGS has a good website with lots of info and links. Click on this link to visit the site:
We would like to thank Charlie and Casey Carter, Peter Rowe and Bauer Swartz for bringing us this interesting creature. Good hunting guys!
1 comments:
Beautiful photo!
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