Beautiful and graceful, bit of a shame you probably won't even see them, but with 24 eyes, they will see you. These are the most deadly jellyfish in the world and they are on @teamaustralia #steemwars. Our very own stinging submarines.
The sting can kill you in two minutes... or you can linger in burning pain for a little longer, depending on the size of the jellyfish and the contact with the tentacles. Yes tentacles, like an octopus, but more than eight, a lot more, 60 to be exact, each one covered in thousands of itty bitty, deadly poison darts. I'm just going to let you look at that for a moment.
They are called jellyfish because they look and feel like a yummy blob of jelly (jello for the yanks) but without the jaunty, bright colours of the well known dessert. They are clear jelly which renders them near invisible in the water.
And that's the big ones with the 2 metre long tentacles. The small ones, known as irukandji, are the size of a neatly trimmed fingernail. If you actually see this little guy at all, it's because he's just stung you on the nose.
Its way of killing is far more subversive than its thug of a cousin, who's numerous tentacles can wrap around you and stab you simultaneously with its... did I mention thousands?... thousands of cells that contain the very fires of hell. The microscopic irukadji is sneaky. Its sting feels like a small needle, no problem, until a short time later, you will start to feel nauseous, then the pain, which starts at the same level as childbirth, will begin to intensify. Legend has it, the venom does not kill you, the pain from it does, anywhere up to 3 weeks later.
So unless you are a turtle, the only predatory threat to this wobbly war machine, you may want to rethink any plans for any invasions.
In their kitchen cupboards, Australians keep the only chemical known to neutralise the unjaunty jelly's unfired javelins, Acetic Acid. That's right, we all keep acid in our cupboards and we eat it, mainly on fish and chips, but sometimes on salads. We have the cure, so we can throw the squooshy stabbers at you.
And if you make it past them, you have to fight people who eat acid and live.
Oh, and the jellyfish has 60 anuses but doesn't give one sh*t about you.