Sea Anemone

Sea anemones reside on rocky shores and coral reefs. When the tide is out, they look like little rubber bags. When the water washes in, they open up like flowers. The mouth of a sea anemone, at the upper end of its cylindrical body, is surrounded by petal like (and usually colorful) tentacles. The sea anemone 's tentacles bear stinging tubes that paralyze prey ocean life. Those coiled tubes 'petals' can sting. Sea anemones sting fish and ocean life that come too close. Then the sea anemone swallows the fish and smaller ocean life.

A sea anemone looks like a flower but sea anemones are intact predatory ocean life. They don't have skeleton. Sea anemones attach themselves to objects in the ocean such as rocks, timber, and coral reefs. Sea anemones live very long lives and hermit crabs sometimes attach them to their shells to camouflage themselves. Sea anemones are filter feeding ocean life. Sea anemones are related to corals, jellyfish, and hydras.

Sea anemone types and sizes

There are over a thousand types of sea anemones found in oceans worldwide. They are very colorful and come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Sea anemones are about 1 - 5 inches in diameter but can grow to as large as 6 feet.

How does a sea anemone eat?

Each sea anemone has tentacles with stinging cells or small capsules with a thread like tubes coiled inside. When an ocean life comes too close, those coiled tubes shoot out and imbed in the ocean life that triggered them. There is a minute amount of poison injected. Sea anemones use this for defense and for capturing food. 

Sea anemone relationship with other ocean life

Sea anemones have unique relationship with other ocean life. Many sea anemones house algae in their tissues and derive some nutrients from them. Some hermit crabs put sea anemones on their shells where the hermit crabs live for camouflage. The sea anemones eat food particles which the hermit crabs drop. Some ocean life such as clownfish do not trigger  discharge of sea anemones' coiled tubes and can form associations with sea anemones.