Sea Anemone

The sea anemone is a fascinating, colorful creature. There are over 1,100 recorded species. You’ll find them at depths of over 32,000 feet in oceans all over the globe. Despite this, the biggest and most diverse creatures tend to live in shallow tropical waters. The animal can be mesmerizing with its rainbow of colors, but trust us, these are not animals to play with.

Sea Anemone: Classification and Scientific Name

The sea creature got its moniker from the plant of the same name. This terrestrial flowering plant shares the array of colors found in many sea anemones.

This animal is a predatory marine creature. They’re classified as Anthozoa (pronunciation: An·​tho·​zoa). The creature belongs to the Cnidaria (pronunciation: cni·​dar·​i·​an) phylum and the subclass Hexacorallia (pronunciation: Hex·​a·​co·​ral·​la). They are cousins of jellyfish, corals, and tube-dwelling anemones. The order Actiniaria, which includes sea anemones, consists of about 1,200 species.

The average sea anemone is no more than a single polyp attached by its base to a hard surface. But there are species that float near water surfaces (adaptations of bigger creatures) while others live in soft sediment.

The polyp contains a columnar trunk with an oral disc at the top. The disc has a central mouth and a ring of tentacles. The tentacles are retractable, pulling into the body cavity or expanding to trap passing prey.

The creatures have stinging cells, which disarm, giving anemones an advantage. Some species live in the proximity of small fish and hermit crabs.

Sea Anemone: The Different Species

There are both wild and recreational creatures among the hundreds of species. Among the families are the Host/Clownfish, Rock/Aiptasiidae, Sea/Actiniidae, Stinging/Actinodendronidae, Tube/Burrowing, and, lastly, what we call the Misc families. Each group has its unique members that encompass over 1,100 species of anemones. Here are a few of each with their scientific names.

Host Creatures

• Delicate sea anemone (Heteractis malu)
• Beaded sea anemone (Heteractis aurora)
• Saddle anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni)

Rock Creatures

• Trumpet anemone (Aiptasia mutabilis)
• Brown glass anemone (Exaiptasia pallida)
• Curlique anemone (Bartholomea annulata)

Sea Creatures

• Christmas anemone (Urticina crassicornis)
• Giant green anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica)
• White-spotted rose anemone (Urticina lofotensis)

Tube Creatures

• Tube anemone (Cerianthus membranaceus)
• Burrowing tube anemone (Pachycerianthus fimbriatus)
• North Sea tube anemone (Cerianthus lloydii)

Sea anemones – Misc Families

• Caribbean carpet anemone (Stichodactyla helianthus)
• Red bearded anemone (Phymanthus crucifer)

Sea Anemone: Stingers

Anemones sting, but not with enough force to hurt most animals, including humans. The average sting only feels sticky to us. Members of the family with strong stings include the Carpet anemones. They are part of the Condylactis genus. There are also Tube anemones in the Pachycerianthus genus.

Some stings result in several reactions, including a rash. The rash can spread fast. If allergic, you can have a severe response. The sting is known to cause anaphylactic shock, which can lead to respiratory failure.

Sea Anemone: What is the Relationship Between Clownfish and Sea Anemones?

The anemones have unique relationships with various organisms and animals. It’s a bond where each creature lives in symmetry with the other. The union provides a region of safe passage for their friends. It’s unique for a predator where anything that moves is potential food.

The clownfish is among those animals hosted by almost a dozen various sea anemones, including the adhesive sea anemone, sebae, saddle, and the magnificent sea anemone (its actual name).

The clownfish is provided both a home and protection by its host. What helps is a skin mucus on the fish that minimizes the stingers. In exchange, the clownfish intervenes with potential predators and keeps its host’s tentacles free of detritus. The creature also feeds on clownfish scraps.

Sea Anemone: Appearance

Among its hundreds of species, you will find these animals in a variety of environments, shapes, and colors. Some are a half-inch in size, and others are six feet across.

What does unite them is a wide-blossoming, plant-like appearance. But the creature is an invertebrate and kin to coral and jellyfish. It has cylindrical, hollow bodies that sit on a sticky disc. The animal has a central mouth covered by clustered tentacles.

Sea Anemone: Distribution, Population, and Habitat

Here are facts about the world of the sea anemone.

Distribution

The sea creature is a species used by humans only for recreation. In other words, the creatures are popular as residents in home aquariums. Otherwise, find them in homes and oceans around the world.

These animals are not on any endangered species list and are not food for anything outside of their ocean predators.

Population

There are about 1,200 species, with the greatest diversity and abundance found in shallow tropical waters. This makes keeping track of their numbers challenging.

Habitat

Depending on the species, the animals live in shallow waters, in rock pools and crevices, under cool, damp rocks, in the sand, on dead coral, and attached to hermit crabs and sea whips. They inhabit tropical and temperate seas with both low and high currents. They are not comfortable in direct sunlight, so they often attach to rocks in shaded areas.

Sea Anemone: Predators and Prey

The stingers are instrumental in deterring most predators. Thanks to that, most species are fortunate enough to live a non-threatened existence. However, some are still vulnerable. Sea stars, several species of fish, snails, and sea turtles can get beyond the sea creatures’ security and feed on them.

Sea anemones are carnivorous predators. They eat fish, shrimp, krill, plankton, and anything else that gets too close. The animal’s tentacles react to touch. The appendages shoot off a nematocyst, a harpoon-ish filament. It’s a neurotoxin whose characteristics have the potential to paralyze small creatures. Once injected, the prey is wrapped in tentacles and guided to the mouth.

Sea Anemone: Reproduction and Lifespan

A large number of these animals reproduce through asexual budding. That’s a reproduction process where fragments break off the body and develop into new life.

Other species actually stretch their base and split across the middle. The act results in two new creatures. In yet other families, small bits of tissue break from the creature’s base and form new, tiny creatures. This is as close to cloning characteristics and reproduction as you get.

The sea creatures can live long lives in the absence of disease or predators. In corners of the scientific community, it’s argued these creatures do not age, can reproduce themselves, and therefore live indefinitely. The truth is the animal has a lifespan of six to eight decades. There is one documented case of a sea anemone living for over a century.

Sea Anemone: Recreational Use

The animals are growing in popularity as household pets. But fish aficionados have to approach the project carefully. Not all types of sea anemones are suitable for life outside the ocean. Those that can survive in captivity require a very specific habitat. The tanks need specific lighting, oxygen levels, water flows, and other elements to thrive. These conditions must be carefully created and maintained. It can be rewarding to pair a sea anemone with a clownfish and observe their symbiotic relationship.