Spotted jelly
Amazing fact
The spotted jelly has mouths at the tips of its arms and along their length.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The spotted jelly has mouths at the tips of its arms and along their length.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Spotted jelly
- Scientific name
- Mastigias papua
- Japanese name
- タコクラゲ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Scyphozoa
- Order
- Rhizostomeae
- Family
- Mastigiidae
- Genus
- Mastigias
It was named 'octopus jellyfish' after the number of its leg-like appendages.
It keeps algae called zooxanthellae living inside its body and gets most of its energy from them.
During the day it stays near the surface so the algae inside it can get sunlight.
How the Spotted jelly lives
In Palau’s lakes, it follows sunlight from west to east. It also eats plankton and other tiny organisms. As the sun sets, it sinks into deeper water.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 30–80 mm
- Diet
- Zooplankton, phytoplankton, tiny invertebrates, and microbes
- Range
- Indian Ocean, China Sea to Japan, and Pacific Ocean to the Fiji Islands
Where the Spotted jelly has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- タコクラゲ
- 简体中文
- 珍珠水母
- 繁體中文
- 珍珠水母
- Deutsch
- Palau-Qualle
- Português (Brasil)
- Água-viva-pintada-de-laguna
- Italiano
- Medusa dorata maculata
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — タコクラゲChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Mastigias papuaChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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