BLOOMING SEA JELLIES

Nov 3 was World Jellyfish day. The Straits Times goes behind the scenes at the S.E.A. Aquariums Aquarist Lab in Resorts World Sentosa to observe how its aquarists breed the invertebrates, which thrive only in specific conditions indoors.

- Ng Sor Luan

At eight in the morning, young aquarists troop into the Aquarist Lab, at Resorts World Sentosa's S.E.A. Aquarium, swiftly getting to their tasks after a brief morning meeting. They move with assured ease, speed and accuracy. A group of two or three darts among the tanks containing some 10 different sea jelly species, climbing up and down ladders in seconds to clean them and feed the sea jellies.

At another section of the lab, some work on cultivating phytoplankton and zooplankton for the sea jellies and other marine animals in the aquarium.

Yet others in the aquatic nursery concentrate on the breeding of sea animals like clownfish, and the banggai cardinal, among others.

Before the aquarium is opened to the public at 10am, the team will have wrapped up the first round of cleaning and feeding of the medusae, the mature jellies. The babies, or ephyrae, would also have had their first meal of the day.

Opened in 2023, the Aquarist Lab is a showcase of the aquarium's breeding programmes and live culture, of which 70 per cent is focused on sea jellies.

Four of the species bred – the moon jellies, white-spotted sea jellies, Atlantic sea nettles and the Pacific sea nettles – are on display in the aquarium.

These invertebrates have been around for 500 million years and there are at least 2,000 species of sea jellies, as they are called at the aquarium, instead of jellyfish. According to the aquarium's education guide, Mr Bryan Ang, 30, "a sea jelly is not a fish as it does not have fins, gills or scales, which are characteristics of most fish, hence, 'sea jelly' is more appropriate".

It's a term being used more now in the aquarium industry, he adds.