Chironex fleckeri

Ge­o­graphic Range

Chi­ronex fleck­eri, also known as box jel­ly­fish, lives in and around the wa­ters of Aus­tralia and South­east Asia. They in­habit parts of the In­dian Ocean, Pa­cific Ocean, and the Great Bar­rier Reef. Box jel­ly­fish have been found in the wa­ters on the west­ern coast of Aus­tralia in the Ex­mouth Gulf to Glad­stone in the north­ern wa­ters of Aus­tralia. Hu­mans are fre­quently stung by this species in the oceanic wa­ters of Queens­land, on Aus­tralia's east­ern coast. Box jel­ly­fish may also be re­spon­si­ble for stings near the Philip­pines. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Tib­balls, 2006)

Habi­tat

Box jel­ly­fish tend to in­habit shal­low, murky saline wa­ters near Aus­tralia. They are mainly found in the ocean but are also found in­land in fresh­wa­ter rivers and man­grove chan­nels when spawn­ing. Dur­ing heavy storms, they move into deeper wa­ters where the water is calm to avoid dam­age. Box jel­ly­fish also in­habit shal­low rivers dur­ing the re­pro­duc­tive sea­son and dur­ing their polyp stage. Once young jel­ly­fish ma­ture into medusa, they fol­low the river out to sea. (Cur­rie and Jacups, 2005; Ham­ner, 1995; Tib­balls, 2006)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The name box jel­ly­fish is de­rived from the shape of their bell, which is box-shaped when healthy. The bell is trans­par­ent and is usu­ally be­tween 16 and 24 cm, though some reach a di­am­e­ter of 35 cm. The ten­ta­cles of box jel­ly­fish dan­gle from ped­alia, the cor­ners of the bell. There can be as many as 15 ten­ta­cles hang­ing from each of the four ped­alia for a total of up to 60 ten­ta­cles per jel­ly­fish. Each of the ten­ta­cles has a slight blue-gray tint and can grow up 3 m in length. Each ten­ta­cle con­tains mil­lions of ne­ma­to­cysts, which are mi­cro­scopic hooks where venom is held and de­liv­ered. Box jel­ly­fish con­tain sen­sory or­gans in­clud­ing 24 eyes, but they do not have a brain. (Car­rette, et al., 2002; Cur­rie and Jacups, 2005; Ham­ner, 1995; Sey­mour, et al., 2004; Tib­balls, 2006)

  • Range mass
    2 (high) kg
    4.41 (high) lb
  • Range length
    3 (high) m
    9.84 (high) ft

De­vel­op­ment

After the re­pro­duc­tion of sex­u­ally ma­ture medusa, box jel­ly­fish de­velop plan­u­lae, cells grouped to­gether after fer­til­iza­tion. Plan­u­lae soon de­velop into polyps, which are ses­sile and small (1 to 2 mm) and look like a liv­ing ball with two ten­ta­cles. Polyps use their two ten­ta­cles to at­tach to a hard sur­face, such as a stone or the shell of other an­i­mals. Polyps usu­ally at­tach them­selves to a sur­face where they are not ex­posed, often on the un­der­side or a crevice of the hard sur­face. Polyps rely on schools of plank­ton for food. A polyp can re­pro­duce asex­u­ally via bud­ding. After a polyp has meta­mor­phosed into a small medusa, it trav­els from fresh­wa­ter rivers to the sea. Once in the sea, a ma­tur­ing box jel­ly­fish con­tin­ues to grow until it reaches its full size of 16 to 24 cm. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Hartwick, 1991; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001)

Re­pro­duc­tion

Box jel­ly­fish find mates by swim­ming to fresh­wa­ter rivers dur­ing the spring. Here, jel­ly­fish re­lease their sperm and eggs di­rectly into the water. Shortly after spawn­ing, box jel­ly­fish die. (Ham­ner, 1994; Sey­mour, et al., 2004)

Every spring, box jel­ly­fish gather to spawn in rivers and sim­i­lar bod­ies of water. Ma­ture box jel­ly­fish re­lease sperm or eggs into the water. Once fer­til­iza­tion oc­curs, plan­ula at­tach to a hard sur­face and de­velop into a small polyp, which may asex­u­ally re­pro­duce via bud­ding. Once the polyp has fin­ished bud­ding, it de­vel­ops into a ju­ve­nile medusa, which grows into a sex­u­ally ma­ture medusa. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Hartwick, 1991; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006)

  • Breeding interval
    Box jellyfish breed once a year.
  • Breeding season
    Box jellyfish breed from late summer to early fall.
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    2 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    2 months

Ma­ture box jel­ly­fish die soon after the re­lease of sperm and eggs and, as such, do not in­vest in the up­bring­ing of their off­spring. (Ham­ner, 1994; Hartwick, 1991; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006)

  • Parental Investment
  • no parental involvement

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­cause box jel­ly­fish die shortly after spawn­ing, their lifes­pan is thought to be under a year. The longest lived box jel­ly­fish in cap­tiv­ity sur­vived nine months. Until the in­ven­tion of a mod­i­fied tank in the 1990s, it was near im­pos­si­ble to keep box jel­ly­fish alive in cap­tiv­ity for more than a few days. Water is in con­stant mo­tion in new tanks, al­low­ing box jel­ly­fish to float in the cur­rent with­out being caught in the cor­ners of the tank. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006)

  • Range lifespan
    Status: captivity
    9 (high) months

Be­hav­ior

Box jel­ly­fish have sev­eral be­hav­ioral traits that set it apart from other jel­ly­fish. Most no­tably, box jel­ly­fish can ac­tively swim, whereas most species of jel­ly­fish float wher­ever the cur­rent takes them with no con­trol over their di­rec­tion. Al­though box jelly have the abil­ity to move up to 4 knots, dur­ing the day they typ­i­cally travel at 1 knot or less. Box jel­ly­fish usu­ally swim slower dur­ing the day than at night, which is likely due to hunt­ing and con­sum­ing of prey. Un­like other jel­ly­fish, box jel­ly­fish rest on the sea floor, not mov­ing un­less dis­turbed. Box jel­ly­fish may re­quire this rest phase to en­er­get­i­cally com­pen­sate for the time they spend ac­tively swim­ming. Box jel­ly­fish also dis­play this type of be­hav­ior when seas are rough, dur­ing which they sink to the sea floor until the water calms. Box jel­ly­fish also un­in­ten­tion­ally sting hu­mans. The sting of a box jel­ly­fish can be fatal to hu­mans and has ac­counted for more than 60 deaths in the last 100 years. Most fa­tal­i­ties are doc­u­mented in chil­dren and young adults. (Gor­don and Sey­mour, 2009; Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Hartwick, 1991; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006)

Home Range

Box jel­ly­fish have no known home range. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Be­cause box jel­ly­fish have no brain, it is dif­fi­cult to de­fine their com­mu­ni­ca­tion and per­cep­tion. Box jel­ly­fish do have eyes, which have pho­tore­cep­tors. Pho­tore­cep­tors give box jel­ly­fish the abil­ity to de­tect light from dark, but it is un­cer­tain whether this species can process shapes and fig­ures. Box jel­ly­fish, how­ever, are at­tracted to light and tend to avoid darker shapes. Box jel­ly­fish can also de­tect vi­bra­tions, which is thought to be use­ful for find­ing prey and avoid­ing preda­tors. Cur­rently, lit­tle is known re­gard­ing meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween jel­ly­fish. If box jel­ly­fish do com­mu­ni­cate with one an­other, it is most likely through chem­i­cal sig­nals. (Coates, 2003; Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995)

Food Habits

Adult box jel­ly­fish tend to feed in shal­low wa­ters, mainly on small fish and prawns. Until they are fully grown, box jel­ly­fish feed pri­mar­ily on shrimp, most com­monly Acetes aus­tralis. Box jel­ly­fish rely on their ven­omous ten­ta­cles to cap­ture their prey. The mil­lions of ne­ma­to­cysts on their ten­ta­cles en­able box jel­lies to de­liver lethal does of venom to their prey, im­mo­bi­liz­ing or killing them in a short amount of time. Be­cause each ne­ma­to­cyst is so small and re­leases only a minute amount of venom, box jel­ly­fish dis­charge as many of its ne­ma­to­cysts as pos­si­ble. Once the ten­ta­cles cap­ture the prey, box jel­ly­fish bring it in closer to their bell and other ten­ta­cles, al­low­ing use of ne­ma­to­cysts from other ten­ta­cles to more quickly im­mo­bi­lize and kill the prey. (Car­rette, et al., 2002; Cur­rie and Jacups, 2005; Tib­balls, 2006)

  • Primary Diet
  • carnivore
    • eats non-insect arthropods
  • Animal Foods
  • fish
  • aquatic crustaceans

Pre­da­tion

Box jel­ly­fish have few known preda­tors be­cause of the sting­ing cells (ne­ma­to­cysts) on their ten­ta­cles. These ne­ma­to­cysts are ex­tremely ven­omous to most species. The only known preda­tor of box jel­ly­fish are green tur­tles. Venom does not pen­e­trate the thick skin of green tur­tles, which are thus un­af­fected by the stings of box jel­ly­fish. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Box jel­ly­fish prey on prawns, shrimp, and small fish, though box jel­ly­fish do not greatly af­fect pop­u­la­tions of these species. Green tur­tles (Ch­e­lo­nia mydas) prey upon box jel­ly­fish, but jel­ly­fish are not their pri­mary source of food. (Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The study of box jel­ly­fish venom has led to a suc­cess­ful anti-venom agent, which can save human lives if ad­min­is­tered quickly. Ad­di­tion­ally, while this re­search is still in its in­fancy, sci­en­tists hope to bet­ter un­der­stand why jel­ly­fish venom is so harm­ful to the human car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem. Once de­ter­mined, this in­for­ma­tion can hope­fully be used to de­sign more ef­fec­tive med­i­cine for other car­dio­vas­cu­lar prob­lems. (Hodg­son and Is­bis­ter, 2009; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006; Win­ter, et al., 2009)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Box jel­ly­fish are be­lieved to be the most ven­omous crea­tures in the world. Their stings are ex­tremely deadly to human be­ings, and have caused over 60 deaths in the last cen­tury. The amount of venom in­jected into hu­mans by box jel­lies in­flu­ences the cer­tainty of death. It is es­ti­mated that if a total of 6 m of ten­ta­cles comes into con­tact with human skin - and there­fore all ne­ma­to­cysts on those ten­ta­cles “fire” - the amount of venom in­jected is suf­fi­cient to cause death in just a few min­utes. Shortly after a human is stung, they typ­i­cally en­counter symp­toms such as ex­treme pain, short­ness of breath, and pur­ple welts. Some vic­tims may also be­come ir­ra­tional and suf­fer car­diac ar­rest. All of these symp­toms typ­i­cally com­mence within five min­utes of being stung and can last up to two weeks be­fore sub­sid­ing. Al­though box jel­ly­fish are fully ca­pa­ble of killing adult hu­mans, most fa­tal­i­ties are doc­u­mented in chil­dren and young adults. To re­duce fa­tal­i­ties, box jel­ly­fish nets have been con­structed on many beaches where box jel­ly­fish stings are known to occur. De­spite these nets, there are still re­ports of stings every year. (Coates, 2003; Ham­ner, 1994; Ham­ner, 1995; Sey­mour and Suther­land, 2001; Tib­balls, 2006)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Box jel­ly­fish are not con­sid­ered at risk by the IUCN, CITES, or the US Fed­eral List. Fur­ther­more, there are no con­ser­va­tion ef­forts for box jel­ly­fish.

Con­trib­u­tors

Tim­o­thy Schmidt (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Glossary

Australian

Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.

World Map

Pacific Ocean

body of water between the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), Australia, Asia, and the western hemisphere. This is the world's largest ocean, covering about 28% of the world's surface.

World Map

asexual

reproduction that is not sexual; that is, reproduction that does not include recombining the genotypes of two parents

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

coastal

the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
drug

a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease

ectothermic

animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature

metamorphosis

A large change in the shape or structure of an animal that happens as the animal grows. In insects, "incomplete metamorphosis" is when young animals are similar to adults and change gradually into the adult form, and "complete metamorphosis" is when there is a profound change between larval and adult forms. Butterflies have complete metamorphosis, grasshoppers have incomplete metamorphosis.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

nomadic

generally wanders from place to place, usually within a well-defined range.

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

radial symmetry

a form of body symmetry in which the parts of an animal are arranged concentrically around a central oral/aboral axis and more than one imaginary plane through this axis results in halves that are mirror-images of each other. Examples are cnidarians (Phylum Cnidaria, jellyfish, anemones, and corals).

reef

structure produced by the calcium carbonate skeletons of coral polyps (Class Anthozoa). Coral reefs are found in warm, shallow oceans with low nutrient availability. They form the basis for rich communities of other invertebrates, plants, fish, and protists. The polyps live only on the reef surface. Because they depend on symbiotic photosynthetic algae, zooxanthellae, they cannot live where light does not penetrate.

saltwater or marine

mainly lives in oceans, seas, or other bodies of salt water.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

venomous

an animal which has an organ capable of injecting a poisonous substance into a wound (for example, scorpions, jellyfish, and rattlesnakes).

vibrations

movements of a hard surface that are produced by animals as signals to others

visual

uses sight to communicate

Ref­er­ences

Bent­lage, B., P. Cartwright, A. Yanag­i­hara, C. Lewis, G. Richards, A. Collins. 2009. Evo­lu­tion of box jel­ly­fish (Cnidaria: Cubo­zoa), a group of highly toxic in­ver­te­brates. Pro­ceed­ings of the Royal So­ci­ety. B, Bi­o­log­i­cal Sci­ences, 277/1680: 493-501.

Car­rette, T., P. Alder­slade, J. Sey­mour. 2002. Ne­ma­to­cyst ratio and prey in two Aus­tralian cubome­du­sans, Chi­ronex fleck­eri and Chi­rop­salmus sp. Tox­i­con, 40/11: 1547-1551.

Coates, M. 2003. Vi­sual ecol­ogy and func­tional mor­phol­ogy of Cubo­zoa (Cnidaria). In­te­gra­tive and Com­par­a­tive Bi­ol­ogy, 43: 542-548.

Cur­rie, B., S. Jacups. 2005. Prospec­tive study of Chi­ronex fleck­eri and other box jel­ly­fish stings in the "Top End" of Aus­tralia's North­ern Ter­ri­tory. Med­ical Jour­nal of Aus­tralia, 183/11-12: 631-636. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 26, 2012 at https://​www.​mja.​com.​au/​public/​issues/​183_​11_​051205/​cur10057_​fm.​pdf.

Gor­don, M., J. Sey­mour. 2009. Quan­ti­fy­ing move­ment of the trop­i­cal Aus­tralian cubo­zoan Chi­ronex fleck­eri using acoustic teleme­try. Hy­dro­bi­olo­gia, 616/1: 87-97.

Ham­ner, W. 1994. Aus­tralia's box jel­ly­fish: a killer down under. Na­tional Ge­o­graphic, 186/2: 116-130.

Ham­ner, W. 1995. Swim­ming, feed­ing, cir­cu­la­tion and vi­sion in the Aus­tralian box jel­ly­fish, Chi­ronex fleck­eri (Cnidaria:Cubo­zoa). Ma­rine and fresh­wa­ter re­search, 46/7: 985-990.

Hartwick, R. 1991. Dis­tri­b­u­tional ecol­ogy and be­hav­iour of the early life stages of the box-jel­ly­fish Chi­ronex fleck­eri. Hy­dro­bi­olo­gia, 216-217: 181-188.

Hodg­son, W., G. Is­bis­ter. 2009. The ap­pli­ca­tion of tox­ins and ven­oms to car­dio­vas­cu­lar drug dis­cov­ery. Cur­rent opin­ion in phar­ma­col­ogy, 9/2: 173-176.

Jacups, S. 2010. Warmer wa­ters in the North­ern Ter­ri­tory-her­ald an ear­lier onset to the an­nual Chi­ronex fleck­eri stinger sea­son. Eco­Health, 7/1: 14-17.

Ka­vanau, J. 2006. Is sleep’s ‘supreme mys­tery’ un­rav­el­ing? An evo­lu­tion­ary analy­sis of sleep en­coun­ters no mys­tery; nor does life’s ear­li­est sleep, re­cently dis­cov­ered in jel­ly­fish. Med­ical hy­pothe­ses, 66/1: 3-9.

Ot­tuso, P. 2010. Aquatic an­tag­o­nists: Cubo­zoan jel­ly­fish (Chi­ronex fleck­eri and Carukia bar­nesi). Cutis, 85/3: 133-136.

Sey­mour, J., T. Car­rette, P. Suther­land. 2004. Do box jel­ly­fish sleep at night?. Med­ical Jour­nal of Aus­tralia, 181/11-12: 707.

Sey­mour, J., P. Suther­land. 2001. Box jel­lies. Na­ture Aus­tralia, 26/12: 32-41.

Shorten, M., J. Dav­en­port, J. Sey­mour, M. Cross, T. Car­rette, G. Wood­ward, T. Cross. 2005. Kine­matic analy­sis of swim­ming in Aus­tralian box jel­ly­fish, Chi­rop­salmus sp. and Chi­ronex fleck­eri (Cubo­zoa, Cnidaria: Chi­ro­drop­i­dae). Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 267: 371-380.

Tib­balls, J. 2006. Aus­tralian ven­omous jel­ly­fish, en­ven­o­ma­tion syn­dromes, tox­ins and ther­apy. Tox­i­con, 48/7: 830-859.

Win­ter, K., G. Is­bis­ter, S. Mc­Gowan, N. Kon­stan­ta­kopou­los, J. Sey­mour, W. Hodg­son. 2009. A phar­ma­co­log­i­cal and bio­chem­i­cal ex­am­i­na­tion of the ge­o­graph­i­cal vari­a­tion of Chi­ronex fleck­eri venom. Tox­i­col­ogy Let­ters, 192/3: 419-424.