Anthozoa is a class of marine invertebrates which includes the sea anemones, stony corals and soft corals. Adult anthozoans are almost all attached to the seabed, while their larvae can disperse as part of the plankton. The basic unit of the adult is the polyp; this consists of a cylindrical column topped by a disc with a central mouth surrounded by tentacles. Sea anemones are mostly solitary, but the majority of corals are colonial, being formed by the budding of new polyps from an original, founding individual. Colonies are strengthened by calcium carbonate and other materials and take various massive, plate-like, bushy or leafy forms.
Calliactis is a genus of sea anemones. Species in this genus are mutually symbiotic with hermit crabs. The anemone gets a place to live and discarded scraps of the crab's food in exchange for its help in defending the crab.
A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. These pools typically range from a few inches to a few feet deep and a few feet across. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide, as seawater gets trapped when the tide recedes. Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. A tidal cycle is usually about 25 hours and consists of one or two high tides and two low tides.
The aggregating anemone, or clonal anemone, is the most abundant species of sea anemone found on rocky, tide swept shores along the Pacific coast of North America. This cnidarian hosts endosymbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that contribute substantially to primary productivity in the intertidal zone. The aggregating anemone has become a model organism for the study of temperate cnidarian-algal symbioses.
Bubble-tip anemone is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. Like several anemone species, E. quadricolor can support several anemonefish species, and displays two growth types based on where they live in the water column, one of which gives it the common name, due to the bulbous tips on its tentacles.
Decorator crabs are crabs of several different species, belonging to the superfamily Majoidea, that use materials from their environment to hide from, or ward off, predators. They decorate themselves by sticking mostly sedentary animals and plants to their bodies as camouflage, or if the attached organisms are noxious, to ward off predators through aposematism.
The spotted jelly, lagoon jelly, golden medusa, or Papuan jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish from the Indo-Pacific oceans. Like corals, sea anemones, and other sea jellies, it belongs to the phylum Cnidaria. Mastigias papua is one of the numerous marine animals living in symbiosis with zooxanthellae, a photosynthetic alga. Mastigias papua is one of the numerous marine animals living in symbiosis with zooxanthellae, a photosynthetic algae.
Edwardsia is a genus of sea anemones, the type of the family Edwardsiidae. They have eight mesenteries and live in tubes in the sand. The name, in Neo-Latin, commemorates the French zoologist Henri Milne-Edwards.
The starburst anemone or sunburst anemone is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. The sunburst anemone was formerly considered the solitary form of the common aggregating anemone, but was identified as a separate species in 2000.
Sea anemones are a group of predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the Anemone, a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Hexacorallia. As cnidarians, sea anemones are related to corals, jellyfish, tube-dwelling anemones, and Hydra. Unlike jellyfish, sea anemones do not have a medusa stage in their life cycle.
Adamsia is a genus of sea anemones in the family Hormathiidae. Species in this genus are mutually symbiotic with hermit crabs. The anemone gets a place to live and discarded scraps of the crab's food in exchange for its help in the crab's defence. As these anemones grow, they secrete a horny membrane, known as a carcinoecium, which overlies the crab's original snail shell and expands the living space of the crab. This means the anemone does not have to change substrate and the crab does not have to seek a larger shell as they both grow.
Diadumene lineata, the orange-striped green sea anemone, has several morphotypes which have been described multiple times.
Periclimenes dardanicola is a species of shrimp found in the western Pacific Ocean. It lives in association with sea anemones that live on the gastropod shells carried by hermit crabs. It was first named by Alexander J. Bruce and Junji Okuno in 2006. It is mainly white, and grows up to a carapace length of 4 mm (0.16 in).
Stichodactyla helianthus, commonly known as sun anemone, is a sea anemone of the family Stichodactylidae. Helianthus stems from the Greek words ἡλιος, and ἀνθος, meaning flower. S. helianthus is a large, green, sessile, carpet-like sea anemone, from the Caribbean. It lives in shallow areas with mild to strong currents.
Anthopleura ballii, commonly known as the red speckled anemone, is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. It is found in shallow water in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.
The Enthemonae is a suborder of sea anemones in the order Actiniaria. It comprises those sea anemones with typical arrangement of mesenteries for actiniarians.
Dardanus arrosor, the red reef hermit or Mediterranean hermit crab, is a species of hermit crab.
Aiptasia mutabilis, also known as the trumpet anemone, rock anemone, and glass anemone, is a species of anemone typically found attached to substrates in cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Its unique trumpet shape gives it its common name and it can grow to be 12 cm, having a column between 3 and 6 cm in size. Like many cnidarians, they rely on nematocysts for protection and to capture prey. They are not difficult to care for, and can be kept in a home aquarium, although due to their speed of reproduction, can quickly become overpopulated.
Dardanus deformis is a species of nocturnal hermit crab that is found in the Indo-Pacific. Its common name is pale anemone hermit. The species is known to transfer sea anemones from one shell to another when it moves to a different shell. It can be kept in an aquarium.
Pagurodofleinia doederleini is a species of hermit crab in the genus Pagurodofleinia. The species lives in the deep Pacific sea-floor of Japan at depths of 100 to 400 meters. It lives in a symbiotic relationship with a carcinoecium-forming sea anemone called Stylobates calcifer. Stylobates calcifer rest on top of Pagurodofleinia deoderleini where it forms a thin shell around Pagurodofleinia doederlenini.
