# Anyone run into fresh water jelly fish in local lakes?



## The Fillet Show

I went out fishing at Bankson Lake in Van Buren county and noticed hundreds of little jelly fish swimming around. I have photo's on my cell phone of them. Has anyone else run into these on their local lakes?


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## soggybtmboys

That is the wildest thing I have seen. I have never even heard of fresh water jellyfish, let alone they are in Michigan.

I'll be damned, check out this website.

http://www.jellyfish.iup.edu/index.html

You might want to report it with your pics, apparently you would be the first to report a sighting in that lake according to the website!


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## rbaddis

A buddy and I fished Diamond lake by White cloud today. It is the first time I have ever seen them. I only saw about twenty or so but still pretty cool. Does anyone know if they sting like the big salt water cousins.
Ryan


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## fishonbb

*I've heard that there were freshwater jellyfish but that the first time i've seen them, thats pretty wild and from what i've heard they don't sting but could be wrong , i don't want to find out!*


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## catalysthackle

There were some in Pine Lake on Saturday. Last year Big Lake was chock full of em'


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## Quack Wacker

That is crazy, I wonder if they have any impact in the fisheries. Has anyone dipped a net in a pulled one out?


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## The Fillet Show

soggybtmboys said:


> That is the wildest thing I have seen. I have never even heard of fresh water jellyfish, let alone they are in Michigan.
> 
> I'll be damned, check out this website.
> 
> http://www.jellyfish.iup.edu/index.html
> 
> You might want to report it with your pics, apparently you would be the first to report a sighting in that lake according to the website!


Just submitted it, thanks for the link!


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## William H Bonney

soggybtmboys said:


> That is the wildest thing I have seen. I have never even heard of fresh water jellyfish, let alone they are in Michigan.
> 
> I'll be damned, check out this website.
> 
> http://www.jellyfish.iup.edu/index.html
> 
> You might want to report it with your pics, apparently you would be the first to report a sighting in that lake according to the website!


Yeah,, thank god for this website. He's saved me alot of money I woulda lost on some big bets I would have made. Black widow's here in MI, rattlesnakes in Oakland Co., jellyfish,, etc.........


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## Randle

We have them in Clear Lake in Mecosta county . They seem to come out later in the summer but from what I have read they are an indicator of good water quality . Tried feeding them to blugills years back . They would imediately spit them out. There is no sting with these. They are about dime sized and seem to just pulsate in the water.


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## newfish

john ford lake has them in newaygo county, mostly see them in late summer early fall. in a glass jar they will stay alive a couple weeks, cool for the kids to watch. good to know blue gill don't like them since I have thought that they may be the reason I would not catch fish at times. they can be abundant in the water.


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## Southend517

I knew about the bigfoots and cougars but not the jellyfish. Thanks for the heads-up


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## alex-v

If you do a search on this message board you will find several threads on these critters last summer and the summer before. One of the threads might even have the link to a newspaper article that was in one of the papers last summer.


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## RichP

ok, I've been staring at this thread for a few minutes now trying to figure out if it's a joke. :lol: I guess you guys are all serious, so that's pretty wild, I've never heard of that before.


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## RiverPlugs

Hi Guys first post YAAA,

But ya I've seen these alot in the past years. They are harmless to humans, and they are definetly a good sign of water quality. They'll eat small prey that swims in or near them and they also eat water fleas and those types of bugs.


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## Wishn I was fishn

Nope. Have never seen them. That would be pretty wild.


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## Matt V

My grandparent's live on a small lake up by Bitely. They used to get them every few year's. We used to catch them and put them in bucket's, never got stung. It has probably been 10 year's since we have seen them.


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## Scott Williams

I've also seen them in Bankson before, it was about this time of year a few years ago. I've seen them in Osterhout lake in Allegan county as well.

Scott


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## Frogfish101

Freshwater jellyfish are the medusa (free-swimming) form of an attached animal known as the freshwater hydra. The reason you don't see them often is because they are only in medusa form for a short period of their lives.


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## UltimateOutdoorsman

Wow crazy!


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## scbrown

Yes-these are in many rivers and small lakes bordering the Great Lakes. They were first noticed in 1933 in the Huron River. See the Huron River Watershed Council website for more info:


Their scientific name is "Craspedacusta sowerbyi" and they came from the Yangzte River via aquarium dumpings, probably:
---------------------------------------------------
Craspedacusta sowerbyi FRESHWATER JELLYFISH
Craspedacusta sowerbyi, an Asian freshwater jellyfish
(Kramp 1950), was first observed in the
United States in 1916 near Frankfort, Kentucky, in
Benson Creek (Garman 1916). The first collections
in the Great Lakes were in 1933 in the Huron River
near Ann Arbor, Michigan (Woodhead 1933), and
in 1934 in Lackawanna, New York, a few hundred
feet from Lake Erie (Robertson 1934). Other Great
Lakes collections have been from Lake Erie (Hubschman
and Kishler 1972) and inland Michigan
lakes where it reaches its northernmost distribution
(Bushnell and Porter 1967, Smrchek 1970). The
organism is often found in artificial bodies of water
like ponds and quarries throughout the United
States but is not limited to these habitats (Garman
1916, Brooks 1932, Schmitt 1939, Dexter et al.
1949, Lytle 1960, Bushnell and Porter 1967). The
sporadic nature of this jellyfishs distribution and
its preference for artificial habitats indicate that it
could possibly be an aquarium release or a release
with aquatic plants (Bushnell and Porter 1967).


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## nnation

My wife and I seen these in a lake in Mecosta County about 4 years ago. I pulled out a few and we looked at these things for several minutes before considering them to be some sort of jellyfish in freshwater. There were dozens and dozens of them coming to the surface. My wife made a call to the DNR and they said it is very rare to see them first hand because the event only occurs for a lake every 30 years or so. I can't recall exactly but I remember thinking that it wouldn't happen again in m lifetime for that lake. Could have been longer. Very interesting.


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## Fecus

Lake St. Clair has them as well as fresh water sponges


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## TrekJeff

They taste great!!!!! Especially with bread and peanut butter!!


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## mike the pike

Supposedly my buddy saw and has pictures of the Lochness monster on its migration route to the great lakes:SHOCKED:
Took this one off belle isle:









That thing is creepy


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## Jacob Huffman

I have a favorite lake I fish south of Cadillac...Thats as close as I will get to the exact area .....GREAT blue gill lake...Anyway have been seen them in this lake a few times now..Glad to hear someone else is seeing them..afraid I was seeing things...


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## Waterloo Redtick

I was working in the Waterloo Rec Area about 4 years when the Wildlife Division biologists were collecting them from Crooked Lake. They gave them to us in a mason jar, pretty cool!


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## shadow

Yep, seen them when I was a kid. Clear Lake north of West Branch and east of St. Helen.


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## sberickson

Does a freshwater Jelly fish sting?


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## CADILLACLADY

My husband and I took the kids to Lake Earl in Ashley Mi and they were all over the place. I was dumb founded to see these things but the kids renamed the lake bikini bottom


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## Fishfighter

I've seen them before they are a pain is they get stuck on a hook


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## ready2fish

yep i was at a lake up in newaygo county and seen them, thats my first


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## workhurts

A number of years ago I had the pleasure of encountering thousands of them while diving a small lake in MI. Quite a site to behold!


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## Turbo_E

sberickson said:


> Does a freshwater Jelly fish sting?


Apparently they can but they can't sting humans.



> Though they have stinging cells on their tentacles and can paralyze tiny prey, the stingers apparently aren't long enough to penetrate human skin.


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## rwilson1

Me and my Daughter seen schools of these jellyfish South 
of Dowling, MI. on Bristol Lake today they were between
a Dime to Quarter size. It was so cool I never seen these
before on lakes around Barry County Lakes .
We brought one home and put it a jar , so awsome to watch.


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## cireofmi

Saw them in Minnesota while on vacation.


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## bowhunter1670

i seen them in goose egg lake in lakewood


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## livintobefishin

Southend517 said:


> I knew about the bigfoots and cougars but not the jellyfish. Thanks for the heads-up


Don't forget about wolf man


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## tracksem

i saw these jellyfish in Bitely lake today. they're awesome!


soggybtmboys said:


> That is the wildest thing I have seen. I have never even heard of fresh water jellyfish, let alone they are in Michigan.
> 
> I'll be damned, check out this website.
> 
> http://www.jellyfish.iup.edu/index.html
> 
> You might want to report it with your pics, apparently you would be the first to report a sighting in that lake according to the website!


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## cebackhaus

Wow that's insane. I've been on a lot of lakes and rivers, especially the Huron river, and I have NEVER seen or heard of these before!


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## (Doug)

havent seen any around here but will start watching a little closer for them thats awesome! Had no clue they were here thats to cool.


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