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Jellyfish are slow swimmers, and most species form part of the plankton. Traditionally jellyfish have been viewed as trophic dead ends, minor players in the marine food web, gelatinous organisms with a body plan largely based on water that offers little nutritional value or interest for other organisms apart from a few specialised predators such as the ocean sunfish and the leatherback sea turtle.
Most zooplankton are microscopic but some (such as jellyfish) are macroscopic, meaning they can be seen with the naked eye. [ 1 ] Many protozoans (single-celled protists that prey on other microscopic life) are zooplankton, including zooflagellates , foraminiferans , radiolarians , some dinoflagellates and marine microanimals .
The jellyfish feeds on plankton, drawing a water current past its outstretched tentacles by pulsating the bell. When edible zooplankton are encountered, they are immobilised by the cnidocytes (stinging cells) and passed by the tentacles to the mouth on the underside of the bell. Thimble jellyfish are consumed by fish, sea turtles and other ...
Jellyfish blooms can have significant impact on community structure. Some carnivorous jellyfish species prey on zooplankton while others graze on primary producers. [110] Reductions in zooplankton and ichthyoplankton due to a jellyfish bloom can ripple through the trophic levels.
Plankton can be divided into producers and consumers. The producers are the phytoplankton (Greek phyton = plant) and the consumers, who eat the phytoplankton, are the zooplankton (Greek zoon = animal). Jellyfish are slow swimmers, and most species form part of the plankton. Traditionally, jellyfish have been viewed as trophic dead ends.
Phyllorhiza punctata is a species of jellyfish, also known as the floating bell, Australian spotted jellyfish, brown jellyfish or the white-spotted jellyfish. It is native to the western Pacific from Australia to Japan, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It feeds primarily on zooplankton.
If food is plentiful, they can eat 10 times their own weight per day. [78] While Beroe preys mainly on other ctenophores, other surface-water species prey on zooplankton (planktonic animals) ranging in size from the microscopic, including mollusc and fish larvae, to small adult crustaceans such as copepods, amphipods, and even krill.
Fish larvae are part of the zooplankton that eat smaller plankton, while fish eggs carry their food supply. Both eggs and larvae are themselves eaten by larger animals. [39] [40] Fish can produce high numbers of eggs which are often released into the open water column. Fish eggs typically have a diameter of about 1 millimetre (0.039 in).