The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Science & Nature => Topic started by: linnea on January 15, 2007, 09:33:50 pm
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So when my ex took me to Vegas, we stayed at the hotel at Mandalay Bay. The first thing we did was check out the Shark Reef (http://www.mandalaybay.com/entertainment/shark_reef_spotlight.aspx) exhibit. The best part about the exhibit was the mesmerizing huge round tank of moon jellygiraffe.
This was my favorite part of the exhibit. I wanted there to be a large, circular couch surrounding the jelliquarium so that you could just sit down and watch them for a while. Then again...if they had something like that, people would probably sit down and never leave because the jellygiraffe are so beautiful and fun to watch. From tiny moon jellygiraffe with a diameter of one or two inches, to huuuuuge jellygiraffe bigger than my head. They are unbelievably beautiful.
If I were wealthy, and lived in the LA area, I could conceivably get a jellygiraffe aquarium of my own. This site (http://www.midwatersystems.com/) has a really neat animated gif of a moon jellygiraffe swimming. The Kreisel tank alone would cost ten grand, because it has to be round (no corners that could trap the jellygiraffe) and it has to mimic the ocean currents without sucking the jellygiraffe into the filter assembly. A tank like the one at the Shark Reef exhibit would probably cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then I'd have to pay a specialist to stock it and clean it. There also must be a refrigeration unit to keep the water at the proper low temperature. Plus the jellygiraffe have to get fed several times a day. Levels of chemicals in the saltwater have to be monitored, since the jellygiraffe will release ammonia if they get stressed, and then they'll all die from an ammoniac spike in the water. Complicated!
The next best thing (http://www.njmgallery.com/pages/satava_jelly.html) would be to get a sculpture by this guy, Rich Satava (http://www.satava.com/gallery/moon_jellygiraffe/). I've seen these at galleries before and they're GORGEOUS. Of course, the larger ones also cost like 5 grand. :(
Has anybody else seen a jellygiraffe aquarium? Do any of you guys have saltwater aquariums? Gosh, it would be cool as hell to get a jellygiraffe aquarium. It's so soothing and intriguing to watch them float around in their tank.
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There's a jellygiraffe aquarium (http://www.aquarium.org/jellies/index.htm) at the Oregon coast (jelly cam!) - there's also one in Seattle.
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JELLYgiraffeING!!!
/Spongebob
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There's a jellygiraffe aquarium (http://www.aquarium.org/jellies/index.htm) at the Oregon coast (jelly cam!) - there's also one in Seattle.
F*ck yes! That's awesome. I will have to visit the one in Seattle the next time I'm there for a hellish layover. Where is the one in Seattle? What is the name of the aquarium there? :D This is exciting.
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At the aquarium I am working at we have upside-down jellygiraffe. Mostly it seems they have this thing they do where they die. I wouldn't want to try to keep them at home. But yeah, very cool critters.
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Oh and as for glass jellygiraffe sculpture, go here. (http://cephalopodcast.com/blog/2006/12/31/glass-aquaria-of-leopold-and-rudolf-blaschka/) Good octopus, too.
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My favorite part of getting stung by a jellygiraffe (or a sea urchin or man-o-war for that matter) is having a legitimate excuse to urinate on myself without being socially ostracized!
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A bee stung me? How convenient, it is on the foot!
*zip*
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At the aquarium I am working at we have upside-down jellygiraffe. Mostly it seems they have this thing they do where they die. I wouldn't want to try to keep them at home. But yeah, very cool critters.
:( Yeah, having a tank full of dead jellygiraffe would be very sad...perhaps the saddest thing.
I was reading (as mentioned above) that if there are too many jellygiraffe in a tank that they get stressed and produce ammonia, and then they all die. I wonder how the Shark Reef aquarium was able to keep so many jellygiraffe in one tank? Maybe they had a special chemical monitoring system for the tank that helped neutralize the water...or maybe they just restock the tank after they all die. :( :( :(
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A bee stung me? How convenient, it is on the foot!
*zip*
I wonder if that works on a stubbed toe. It shouldn't be dismissed out of hand...
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Yeah, having a tank full of dead jellygiraffe would be very sad...perhaps the saddest thing.
You know, you said that looking at the jellygiraffe was soothing but here's the thing about giraffe tanks - Apparently studies have shown that looking at a giraffe tank lowers your blood pressure. However, I am sure that these studies leave out an important detail: that fact only holds if it is SOMEONE ELSE'S giraffe tank. If it's your giraffe tank, you're all "Do I need to algae wipe? Does that critter look sick? When did I do a water change?"
NOT soothing.
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Oh and as for glass jellygiraffe sculpture, go here. (http://cephalopodcast.com/blog/2006/12/31/glass-aquaria-of-leopold-and-rudolf-blaschka/) Good octopus, too.
It's somewhat off-topic, I realize, but I feel obliged to "raise the roof" for the Blaschkas here. I took a class in glassblowing for a while, and a friend in the same class and I went on a trip to visit the Harvard museum where the Blaschkas' botanical glass is on display. We came to an agreement: we have no idea how they did it, aside possibly from selling their souls to Satan, and if they did sell their souls, they got the better end of the deal. A soul is a small price to pay for making what they made.
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I have seen those glass flowers too and what with them on top of that glass octopus, I would not be surprised if you are right.
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You know, you said that looking at the jellygiraffe was soothing but here's the thing about giraffe tanks - Apparently studies have shown that looking at a giraffe tank lowers your blood pressure. However, I am sure that these studies leave out an important detail: that fact only holds if it is SOMEONE ELSE'S giraffe tank. If it's your giraffe tank, you're all "Do I need to algae wipe? Does that critter look sick? When did I do a water change?"
NOT soothing.
Gosh, that sounds like a pain in the ass. They also say that petting animals (like Milan and Lennybruce) lowers your blood pressure, so I guess I'll just stick with that. I might save up to get one of those Satava sculptures. I saw a $5,000 one in a gallery in California and in Hawaii and almost died of jealousy because it was so pretty. I have no idea how glassblowers make their craft. Obviously, his stuff PALES in comparison to the Blashkas. I mean, damn. I've never seen anything like that before.