Council, VA -- An unexpected sea creature has shown up in Council, Virginia.

A family discovered it while they were feeding the fish in their pond.

They're called appalachian mountain jellyfish.

This type of jellyfish is actually very rare and extremely small.

There about the size of a quarter.

They can reproduce very soon into the free swimming stage of their life cycle.

The family doesn't quite know how the jellyfish got there but they have their theories.

"We have a crane that comes to our pond every now and then and it comes around. From what I'm reading I think it came in on the feet of the crane and they just kind of spread from there," said Jody Sykes.

Just like their brethren in the ocean Appalachian Mountain Jellyfish are carnivores.

They capture their prey by means of stinging tentacles extending from the fringes of their umbrella shaped bodies.