A Ctenophore comb jelly from the Northsea

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:25 am

A very little (about 2 mm) comb jelly from the Northsea coast

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:55 am

I enjoy seeing what you come up with on your trips to the coast Jan. What is your method of collecting? Do you just dip a jar in the water, or use a net, or something else? And how long do the specimens live?

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 6:27 am

Thanks. I live about 20 km from the coast and I collected this watersample last sunday a week ago so it is 10 days old now and yesterday evening I still could see a lot of green sparkles in the dark.
This jelly I photographed this morning and was also still living.
I use a simple fine little plankton net with a 4 meter telescopic stick.
There where two men fishing shrimps with a net and they took my net about 30 meters from the beach for two or three minutes. I keep the sample in a cool room in a little plastic bucket. No extra air blowers or filters, nothing. It don't even smell.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 6:40 am

Jan, thanks for the explanation. That paints a very complete picture of the process. I live 1000 miles from any ocean, so how long they will live is interesting, as I know someone who has offered to send me some samples. I am worried about keeping them alive long enough to make the trip in a truck.

I bought a nice long handled dip net with a micromesh net last summer that I use to collect samples from the Mississippi river a couple miles from the house. It has proven to be a very valuable tool.