Seattle Aquarium Trip

I've been to the Seattle Aquarium a few times as a kid. However, it's been years since my last visit, so it was nice to experience everything all over again. This time around, my favorite part was when I saw them feed the octopus and the otters.

Pictured above are a school of Spotted Lagoon Jellyfish (Mastigias Papua). They caught my eye because of just how cool they looked; it almost looks like they're floating through space. Here are a couple of interesting facts about them according to their biography:

• They have several small mouth openings on each of their frilly oral arms that they use to capture and eat zooplankton.

• They are photosynthetic: they harbor symbiotic algae within their tissues and rely on it for much of their daily energy needs.

I didn't know about this particular brand of jellyfish before going to the aquarium, and they seem like such fascinating creatures. It's interesting to know that this is just one of the ten thousand species of cnidarians known, which leads me to my Marine Biology related question: "How do different members of the same phylum interact with each other?" Are they more likely to coexist or compete?