#carybdea

(video are from Carybdea marsupialis and they are half the size of the C. branchi)

Box jellyfish

Bell is 7cm (2,8in) and tentacles 2m (6,6ft)

Tentacle on each 'corner' and have brown pigment at the top (the phacellae and pedalia).

They are mostly found North of Namibia and on the South African coast.

● This Jelly is really sociable: it will go wherever people are. What it doesn’t understand is why they run away.

● They love to surround people doing a curious dance. The problem is that usually everyone gets scared of it.

The photo is from online, but when my brother was visiting the harbour at Fremantle and described matchbox-sized jellyfish with four tentacles, there’s not much else is could be. Southwest Stingers (Fam. Carybdeidae) are cubomedusans found in temperate Australian waters, but unlike the justly infamous box jellyfish, sea wasps, and Irukanji of more tropical shore, they aren’t horribly dangerous. They’re merely dangerous enough that anti-stinger suits are highly advisable (and a necessity Up North).

Despite being spineless, brainless, and lacking any visible means of support, cubomedusans are rather more capable then your average bad boyfriend. They can deftly manoeuvre around obstacles, hunt prey, swim towards artificial light and avoid stormy weather by entering estuaries. This, despite lacking brains or even any tissue to make a brain from. They DO have 24 eyes, though, with 4 being remarkably sophisticated for a jellyfish, complete with lenses. Most of the thinking about obstacles appears to take place in the eye clusters.