Download Sea Anemone Although Sea Anemones look like flowers, they are

Sea Anemone
Although Sea Anemones look like
flowers, they are predatory animals.
These invertebrates have no skeleton at
all. They live attached to firm objects in
the seas, usually the sea floor, rock, or
coral, but they can slide around very
slowly. Sea anemones are very long
lived. Hermit crabs sometimes attach
sea anemones to their shells for
camouflage.
Habitat and Distribution: There are
over 1000 species of anemones found
in coastal waters worldwide, in shallow
waters (including coral reefs), and in
deep oceans.
Mutualism: Clown fish always live
near anemones; they are immune from
(and protected by) the stinging tentacles. The clown fish help the anemone by
cleaning the tentacles (as the fish eat detritus) and perhaps by scaring away predators.
Anatomy: Sea Anemones come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. Radially
symmetric, they have a columnar body with a single body opening, the mouth, which
is surrounded by tentacles. The tentacles protect the anemone and catch its food; they
are studded with microscopic stinging capsules. Sea Anemones are usually about 1 to
4 inches (2.5-10 cm) across, but a few grow to be 6 feet (1.8 m) across.
Diet: Sea Anemones are carnivores that eat fish, mussels, zooplankton (like copepods,
other small crustaceans, and tiny marine larvae), and worms. They catch food using
the tentacles, which have poisonous stingers (called nematocysts).
Predators: Sea Anemones are eaten by very few animals. Their predators include the
Grey Sea Slug and the Tompot Blenny.
Reproduction: Sea Anemones reproduce by lateral fission (in which an identical
animal sprouts out of the anemone's side) and by sexual reproduction (in which
anemones release eggs and sperm, producing free-swimming larvae).
Classification: Kingdom Animalia (animals), Phylum Coelenterata (corals, jellyfish,
sea anemones, hydroids), Class Anthozoa meaning "flower-like animals" (corals and
sea anemones), Order Actiniaria.