00:04Well, if jellyfish are getting tangled in aquariums, then how are they surviving in
00:08oceans? Like, jellyfish have survived for at least 500 million years, which is older
00:12than dinosaurs and trees, so it doesn't make sense that they could survive that
00:15long if they're getting tangled up. This really made me want to cry, so I looked
00:19into it and learned it's to do with the water current. First, yes, jellyfish can
00:22propel themselves, they pulse their bell to move, but they're mostly drifters.
00:26Currents do most of the work, and in aquariums, that's actually the problem.
00:30So jellies need special tanks called creasal tanks. These create a constant circular flow to keep them
00:35suspended in the middle, so they don't sink or hit the edges. The tank itself doesn't necessarily have
00:39to be circular, but to keep the jellies alive, there must be a constant circular flow of water.
00:44But if the flow is slightly off or too strong or too weak or disrupted by other jellies, they can
00:49drift into each other, and in a confined space, the tentacles are way more likely to overlap and not.
00:54But the ocean, on the other hand, is not a glass box. In the wild, the ocean currents are broader,
00:59more diffuse, and constantly shifting. And jellyfish are built for that, and they're usually far more
01:04spread out, and they're not territorial or social in the way that many mammals are. Could they tangle
01:09in the wild during storms or dense blooms? Probably. Sometimes. But chronic knotting is much more likely
01:15to happen in a glass box than in the open ocean. Not because they're bad at being jellyfish, it's just
01:21they're in captivity. If you have questions on why animals are doing that behavior or not doing
01:25that behavior, send it to us and we'll give it a full journalistic check.
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