Why Do Jellyfish Sting?
For the most part, 95 percent are just going to sting. Some jellies are actually able to choose whether to sting their prey. How they do that, we don’t know. As for the stingers, they’re like kids’ jack-in-the-boxes — there’s a box, and a cap, and a happy little puppet guy that jumps out. Stinger cells are arranged very much like that. There’s a box, a trigger, and a trap door. When you hit the trigger, the trap door pops open, but instead of a happy puppet guy, there’s a hollow, harpoon-like, spring-loaded dart full of neurotoxins. They make it so the muscles stop working so that the prey doesn’t struggle. If you’re a gelatinous animal, you don’t want to struggle with your prey. You want that thing to stop moving. Do jellyfish do anything good for the ecosystem? Sure. In the ecosystem, they play an important role. They’re eaten by a lot of things. Some animals ride around on jellyfish. There are juvenile fish that use jellies as homes. They hide in tentacles and don’t get stung, but
However, it is these tentacles that make them so dangerous, for on them are stinging cells called nematocysts. When the umbrella-like jellyfish moves through the water, its tentacles drift along behind it. Jellyfish do not attack their prey rapidly like sharks and other fish. They might slowly propel themselves along, but usuall