Fish inside jelly fish bell – both likely to die, say researchers explaining the truth in the viral photo

A baffling photo of a fish inside a transparent jelly fish, taken by an Australian ocean photographer, Tim Samuel, has gone viral.

Though it was thought to be a hoax initially, the photo has been now confirmed to be true.

Tim Samuel says he photographed the pair near the surface at Byron Bay, New South Wales and posted it on his Instagram account, from where it went viral.

As media outlets pounced upon the story, the big question emerged, what was a live fish doing inside the bell.  The box jellyfish in the photo is said to be extremely venomous, so, how the fish survive the sting?

Experts say the fish could be a juvenile trevally, which often hides under the bells of jellyfish when they are young. So, it may have some immunity to the venom.

But trevally normally hide under jellyfish that are much larger than they are. But in the photo, the fish is almost as large as its host.

Experts say the encounter that led to the fish slipping into the jellyfish bell may have been an accident: "Accidents happen in nature as much as they do for us," one of them was quotedsaying.

The host is likely to die from the injury when the fish tries to get out. And the fish may also succumb to the jellyfish’s venom.