The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-30
LIVING IN A FRIENDLY STOMACH
HOW THE WHITE SHRIMP DOES
ITS HOUSEKEEPING.
Queer, Little Green-eyed Creature
Settles Himself For Season In
Their Deadly Enemy, Jelly Fish.

If a boat is anchored in any one Of
the channels which separate the quick
sands of the mouth of the Thames.
when the tide is running fast during
calm summer weather, multitudes of
jellyfish may be seen floating along
just below the surface. Some are no
bigger than teacups, and others are
the size of a large basin, and they all
have some curious markings on the
top, and move by contracting and ex-
panding the lower parts of their bodies.
Hour after hour these beautiful
things float by, and their numbers are
incalculable. If one is caught with the
hands. the fingers usually perforate its
jelly-like structure, and if it is placed
on a board, the creature seems to run
away in the form of water
Now, great many of the larger
kinds, when carefully examined, are
found to have within their large stom-
achs small white shrimp, with most
beautiful emerald-colored eyes. 1t
was supposed that these shrimps
formed the food of the jellyfsh or
medusae, as they are properly called,
but careful investigation proved that
these lively little creatures, with the
beautiful eyes, only exist in the larger
medusae, and that they make the
stomach of these wandering masses of
animal jelly their home and larder.
The shrimp soon dies if it is taken
from its shelter, and specimens of it
are never found swimming with the
common shrimps which live in the sea
around our coasts. The shrimp lives at
the expense of the jellyfish, and feeds
upon some of the small creatures which
are entangled by the peculiar structure
of its mouth.
The jellyfish floats along, collecting
food, and killing every small living
thing that touches its singing body
whilst the shrimp enjoys itself and
lives inside, out of danger, and in great
comfort.
The shrimp swins in and out, and
is never harmed by the deadly poison
of the wonderful sharp stingS of the
medusa-
Now. the most wonderful part of this
singular history is how the jellyfish
and the shrimp come together. There
are no jellyfish in the winter and early
spring, and the whole of them die in
the autumn, shrimps and all. Before
dying, the shrimp leaves the stomach
of the jellyfish and lays it's eggs at
the bottom of the shallow sea.
The jellyfish lays thousands of tiny
eggs, which, being covered with small,
movable hairs, row themselves into
quiet, rocky hooks on the coast and
settle down. These eggs become adj
herent to pieces of shell or stone, and
do not turn to jellyfshes, any more
than butterfy's eggs turn to a butter
fly.
A stem springs from them, and
branches arise from it, all covered with
tiny cups, whose rims are crowded with
small arms, called tentacles. This is
the first stage of the jellyfish's life.
Now the shrimp's egg matches about
the same time as the stem just men
toned begins to grow, and the young
shrimp is not at all like the old one; it
has a big head, smalLbody and very
long legs. In the first part of their
existence, the jellyfish and the shrimp
are separate and unlike what they
subsequently turn to. As the warm
weather comes on. the stem, with its
branches and cup-like ends, begins to
bud, and after awhile out of the buds
spring lively jellyfish, which soon
swim off. About this time the young
shrimp casts its skin and grows into