Chrysaora Fuscescens

Chrysaora fuscescens, known as the Pacific sea nettle or West Coast sea nettle, is a jellyfish widespread across the northeastern Pacific Ocean, living in temperate to cooler waters off British Columbia and the west coast of the United States and ranging south to Mexico. Its common name refers to its defensive, nettle like sting, which, like the sting of the stinging nettle plant, is often irritating and occasionally mildly painful to humans though rarely dangerous. The species has a distinctive golden brown bell with a reddish tint that can grow larger than one meter across in the wild, though most individuals measure less than fifty centimeters; its long, spiraling whitish oral arms and twenty four undulating maroon tentacles can trail behind the animal as far as fifteen feet. Since roughly the mid twentieth century it has become a popular exhibit species at aquariums, prized for its bright coloring and long tentacles as well as for being comparatively low maintenance in captivity, where it can even be bred by culturing its polyps.