# Jellyfish identification



## Stack03HD (Jul 18, 2011)

Hello all. I know this discussion is geared more toward tanks and things, but I've been trying to find out what kind of jellyfish this is since early May. My wife and I got married on Oahu, Hawaii on May 3rd, 2011. I saw this jellyfish in the water from the balcony of our condo at 1pm on the 4th. It was probably about 50-75 feet off the beach.

We were staying on the 11th floor and I took the picture with my digital camera using a 10X optical zoom. The jelly was large enough to be easily seen from that height and I tried to get as good a picture as I could.

Your help is greatly appreciated. Mahalo.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

I have been googling for a while, and can't seem to find any that look like the one in the pic. Most that I've seen in pics also have thinner, squiggly looking tentacles along with the thick ones shown in your pic.

The only thing I could find was this: Google Image Result for http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-voc8pERqg_0/TgJEImN8lQI/AAAAAAAADG8/_ahimtOqCh8/s400/2011-06-22_Jelly-Fish.jpg It has the dark spots around the rim, but the tentacles are all wrong.....

Colouring is more similar to this Man of War: Portuguese Man-of-Wars, Portuguese Man-of-War Pictures, Portuguese Man-of-War Facts - National Geographic But the bell is different. Although, if threatened from above, the Man of War will deflate it's air bladder and submerge.

If I do find anything, I'll for sure let you know.


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## Pigeonfish (Jun 23, 2011)

With a quick look in my one of my books, seems like you found a young Pelagia. It's 4 main arms seem to be pretty small, close to it's umbrella. Picture isn't too clear.


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

jellyfish creep me out for some reason...

it may be just the photo, but that tentacle structure looks very strange. the closest I could find was just a Purple Striped Jellyfish (aka Pelagia), but even it looks different... it seemed to me like it had too many of those catch tentacles to be one


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

If you can see it from the 11th floor, the Jellyfish must be very large. Don't swim near it, these large Jellyfish have very powerful stingers in their tenticales and can be very dangerous. These Large Jellyfish are open ocean creatures and you won't usually see them near Coral Reefs.


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## Stack03HD (Jul 18, 2011)

Thanks for your efforts. I have google'd my photo a lot and haven't found anything like it either. I thought it might be a man of war, but the hood looked different.

And yes, I did think it was pretty big since I could see it from so far away. I could also view sea turtles from the condo and they are a couple of feet wide across their shells.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

That is adorable! I've got an Aztec/Mexican style sea turtle tattoo. They are my fav' animals (along with penguins.) We went to VA. Beach for out honey moon and went to the Marine Museum to see the sea turtles. They were HUGE! The babies were so small though!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I was looking at some pictures on cnn on a rare jellyfish that is black. Looks simular to those pics.


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## DocPoppi (Mar 4, 2011)

I can tell you it is not a man of war, there is no air bladder and oodles of tentacles.
It is likely to be a type of Pelagia, there are a large variety of these. I don't know the scientific name for it, but that's what they were called when I lived in Hawaii.
A simular one is seen on the coast of Cali/Mexi.


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## bloop (Dec 3, 2011)

It's a species in the genus Thysanostoma. Very cool, very rare. I know this is late but I hope it helps!


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