sea anemone
sea anemone, any member of the invertebrate order Actiniaria (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria), soft-bodied, primarily sedentary marine animals resembling flowers. They are found from the tidal zone of all oceans to depths of more than 10,000 metres (about 33,000 feet). Some live in brackish water. They are largest, most numerous, and most colourful in warmer seas. The colourful Tealia are found in temperate regions.
The nearly 1,000 species vary in size from a few millimetres (a fraction of an inch) in diameter and length to about 1.5 metres (about 5 feet) in diameter. The largest sea anemones—also the largest cnidarians—are of the genus Stichodactyla.
Actinarians exhibit great variety in shape and habit. The cylindrical body may be thick and short or long and slender. The oral disk, containing the mouth, at the upper end of the body is surrounded by petal-like tentacles, which are often present in multiples of six. Sea anemones are commonly yellow, green, or blue; they are typically attached by the pedal disk, or base, to a hard surface such as a rock, wharf timber, a seashell, or the back of a crab. Most seldom move; some occasionally creep very slowly or move in a slow somersaulting fashion. Members of certain genera (e.g., Edwardsia, Halcampa, Peachia) have no pedal disk but burrow deep into the sand or mud, exposing only the mouth and tentacles. Members of the genus Minyas float near the ocean surface, with the mouth hanging downward.
Sea anemones have no solid skeleton but may secrete a horny covering. Some species have adhesive-secreting structures and cover themselves with grains of sand, bits of shell, or other foreign objects.
Nematocysts, microscopic stinging structures in the tentacles, are used to capture and paralyze prey such as fishes and other marine animals. Some species eat only microorganisms. Anemones are eaten by sea slugs, certain starfishes, eels, flounders, and codfish.
In most species the sexes are separate. Sperm and eggs are usually discharged into the water, where fertilization occurs. Sometimes, as in Halcampa and Actinia, sperm are drawn into the female’s gastrovascular cavity, in which the eggs are fertilized. Fertilized eggs develop, for example, into ciliated larvae that disperse to new areas before metamorphosing into adults. Reproduction sometimes occurs asexually by longitudinal fission (e.g., in Anemonia); that is, the animal splits lengthwise into two equal individuals. In some species (e.g., Metridium) the pedal disk breaks into fragments that grow into new individuals.
Sea anemones often live in close association with other organisms. The hermit crab Pagurus arrosor carries a single anemone of the genus Calliactis on the snail shell it uses as a “house.” When the hermit crab grows too large for its shell, it moves to a new one, transplanting the anemone to the new shell. Similarly, the hermit crab Eupagurus prideauxi and the sea anemone Adamsia palliata are always found living together, never alone. Fishes of the genera Premnas and Amphiprion often live safely among the poisonous tentacles of an anemone such as a species of Stichodactyla, Radianthus, or Discosoma. Such fish, however, may be stung and eaten by other anemone individuals, even of the same species.