The Cephea cephea started budding! The bud on the calyx of the right polyp below will form another polyp with the stoma on the distal end of the bud. I first noticed on April 29. Yasuo Sugiura, in a paper on Cephea cephea development, observes that when this scyphistoma stage is completed each polyp has 16 tentacles with nematocysts and the mouth projects out longer (1966). Nematocysts are the stinging cells that Cnidarians have.
They look less healthy then they did when we received them from the aquarium but with a little TLC hopefully they will continue to develop. They were in an incubator at 28 degrees celsius from April 29th to May 2. They are now in a warming bath at 28 degrees. Sugiura observes that abundant brine shrimp and a temperature of 30 degrees will increase the budding rate. Strobilation can occur when a culture of polyps at 20 degrees is raised to 25-30 degrees however, the highest rate of strobilation occurs at 29-30 degrees and it takes 3-5 days. Still keeping an eye out for strobilation; some signs will be a color change to a more yellowish brown color, constriction of the calyx.
Our single ephyra is doing great. Here is a video of it eating a brine shrimp.
1. SUGIURA, YASUO. "ON THE LIFE‐HISTORY OF RHIZOSTOME MEDUSAE IV. CEPHEA CEPHEA." Embryologia 9.2 (1966): 105-122.
1. SUGIURA, YASUO. "ON THE LIFE‐HISTORY OF RHIZOSTOME MEDUSAE IV. CEPHEA CEPHEA." Embryologia 9.2 (1966): 105-122.
-Monica Erviti
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