Mark Loos

Mark Loos began handling jellies while working at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, California where he was a part-time aquarist for four and a half years.

At Cabrillo, Mark worked with Moon Jellies, West Coast Nettles, Purple Stripe and Black Jellies. From Cabrillo, he went on to work at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach in the Southern California/Baja Gallery.

After taking care of sea turtles, shore birds, a sting ray touch pool and several focus tanks featuring local fish and invertebrates, Mark was selected to help build the aquariums first temporary exhibit: Jellies Phantoms of the Deep.

Building out the tank involved the plumbing of the main system of one stretch kreisel and nine pseudo kreisels as well as three isolated separate systems in the Jelly Lab and a wet-table for the culture of various jellies. After the initial build-out, mark worked as the main aquarist in the jelly gallery for two and a half years working with various species of Scyphozoan (west and east coast nettles, moon jellies, fired egg jellies, phascelophora, , Hydrozoan (crystal jellies, umbrella jellies) and comb jellies (sea gooseberries, sea walnut, berroe).

In addition to maintaining the systems and husbandry of the jellies, Mark went on numerous jelly collecting trips ranging from the San Diego Bay area to collect an exotic species of jelly called Phylorhiza to the collection of local moon jellies in Alamitos Bay. He also made blue water dives to collect some of the more exotic jellies that drift through our local Southern California waters. It was on one of these dives that Mark ran into what would become his favorite jelly: a type of pelagic molusc called a Heteropod.

Mark developed his first mini-pseudo-kreisel during the culture of east coast nettles and purple stripe jellies because he needed an intermediate grow-out tank where the jellies could transition from the ephyra to the ‘sub-adult’ stage. This new tank design proved ideal for the transition stage -- once jellies grew to a bell diameter of approximately one inch, they were transferred to display tanks.

In addition to his work with jellies and aquariums, Mark has worked as a Dive Master and Naturalist for Hydrosphere, a company specializing in marine education programs. These programs included a boat based shark experience where school kids and the public were able to snorkel with Blue and Mako sharks from a custom built snorkeling shark cage. A separate Sea Lion program allowed participants to snorkel with the sea lions off of the rookery at Santa Barbara Island.

JellyfishMark also works as a Scientific Collector, collecting Southern California marine invertebrates and fish for aquariums, researchers and educational programs.

For more information about Jellyfish aquariums or Mark's background, visit our contact page.