Friday 18 April 2014

Box Jellyfish / Cubozoa

Box Jelly-Fish

Box jelly fish has the most strongest venom in the world, which contains toxins that attack the heart, nervous system and skin cells, many people are lucky to survive jelly fish attacks.

human victims have been known to go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before even reaching shore. Survivors can experience considerable pain for weeks and often have significant scarring where the tentacles made contact.

Box jellies, also called sea wasps and marine stingers, live primarily in coastal waters off Northern Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are pale blue and transparent in colour and get their name from the cube-like shape of their bell. Up to 15 tentacles grow from each corner of the bell and can reach 10 feet!

Box jellies are highly advanced among jellyfish. They have developed the ability to move rather than just drift, jetting at up to four knots through the water. They also have eyes grouped in clusters of six on the four sides of their bell, scientists are still unsure of how they see though.

The box jelly fish can live for only less than a year, which is quite good in a sense.
 Sea turtles are unaffected by the sting of the box jellyfish and regularly eat them!

These jelly fish are called a fluther or smack when in a group, they are invertebrates, so are cold blooded and are carnivores.

Jelly fish relative to a 6 ft man:
Illustration: Box jellyfish compared with adult man


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