I love animals - Reading, videos, questions and a story for small kids - Part 31 Jellyfish

They float around in the sea and sometimes in freshwater.  They have different colours and float around and move as if they are doing a dance.  

They can sting you if they get too close and even if they are called a fish, they are not really one.

Not all jellyfish are coloured, some of them are see through or transparent.  Some are very difficult to spot with the naked eye.  They would be very good in a hide and seek game :)

Jellyfishes differ from fish in a few ways, but one being that fish has bones inside of them and a brain, where a jellyfish does not have either.

One of the main differences between jellyfish and fish is that, while fish are vertebrates, having a backbone, all coelenterates are invertebrates. Jellyfish don't have a skeleton, a brain, or a central nervous system, and unlike fish, they reproduce both sexually and asexually at different stages of their life cycle. 

If an animal reproduces 'sexually' it means there is a male and a female present but 'asexually' means that the animal produces another one that 'breaks' off from its body.

Jellyfish will live off plankton, which is a collection of different small organisms and sea turtles will eat the jellyfish.  That is why there are so many cases of sea turtles that get stuck in plastic, since it looks like  jelly fish.  Plastic is very harmful to our planet and marine life. You can read more about it here.

Jellyfish can sting and that is how it protects itself.  It uses its tentacles to sting and while most are harmless to humans, some can hurt very badly and even kill.

• Watch the video and answer the questions.

1. What are jellyfish made of?
2. What do they rely on to protect them?
3. How long can the tentacles of a lionsmane jellyfish be?
4. Where will you find the nematocyst that does the stinging?
5. What can help after you have were stung by a jellyfish?
6. Which jellyfish's sting can be deadly?
7. What makes sure that the jellyfish does not escape after the turtle has caught it?

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