Freshwater Jellyfish

freshwater jellyfish, any medusa, or free-swimming form, of the genus Craspedacusta, class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria). Craspedacusta is not a true jellyfish; true jellyfish are exclusively marine in habit and belong to the class Scyphozoa (phylum Cnidaria).

Craspedacusta sowerbyi, which is widespread in freshwaters of the Northern Hemisphere, grows to about 2 centimetres (0.8 inch) in diameter. Several hundred short tentacles extend, fringelike, from the margins of the animal’s bell-shaped body.

As with other hydroids, the medusoid form is produced by a small, sedentary polypoid form (cylindrical, stalklike, and permanently attached to a surface). The polyp, only about 2 millimetres (0.08 inch) tall, produces a medusoid form by asexual budding; i.e., an extension of the main body breaks away. Each medusa is either male or female and produces eggs or sperm. The gametes from different individuals unite to form a planula, a ciliated, free-swimming larva, which attaches to a surface and develops into a polyp. The Craspedacusta polyp is notable for its lack of tentacles.