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Sea Anemone Facts

Sea Anemone Facts
A sea anemone is a predatory invertebrate with no bones that lives underwater and looks like a flower. They tend to stick to firm objects in the ocean or sea, and wait for marine life to pass by to catch with their tentacles. Their tentacles have stingers which are poisonous, and the tentacles guide the captured fish or other marine life into the sea anemone's mouth. Sea anemones are considered to be carnivores, and can have a diameter of half an inch to six feet. Some of the sea anemone species can live as long as 50 years. They move by sliding along or making slow movements with their pedal disc, or they swim. Some sea anemones do not attach themselves to objects and instead float upside down in the water with the help of a gas chamber in the pedal disc.
Interesting Sea Anemone Facts:
The sea anemone gets its name after the terrestrial anemone flower that looks similar to this creature.
Although sea anemones are mostly poisonous only to their prey, some species are known to be highly toxic to humans. Some are even potentially lethal to humans because of their toxins.
Sea anemones are similar to jellyfish and coral.
The sea anemone is made up of a pedal disc (a foot), a body that is cylindrical in shape, and many tentacles that pull prey into its central mouth.
It only takes a very slight touch to trigger a reaction from the tentacles. Once touched the tentacles shoot filaments into the prey that inject the toxins. This paralyzes the prey and then the tentacles are able to guide the helpless prey into the sea anemone's waiting mouth.
It is estimated that there are more than 1,000 species of sea anemones found all over the world at varying depths in the oceans.
Some sea anemones have adapted to live in cold water, but most species prefer the warmer tropical waters.
The largest of the sea anemones are found in more tropical, coastal waters.
Sea anemones eat zooplankton, mussels, fish, shrimp and other small crustaceans, tiny marine larvae, worms, and any other 'meat' they can find.
Some hermit crabs will attach sea anemones to their shells to provide them with camouflage.
Sea anemones are invertebrates, and have no skeleton.
Sea anemones can reproduce either by sexual reproduction or by lateral fission. Lateral fission involves sprouting an identical sea anemone from the adult's side.
Some sea anemones live in harmony with green algae. The anemone provides the green algae with a safe place and exposure to light while the algae provides food in the form of sugar, and oxygen, through photosynthesis, for the anemone.
Sea anemones also live amongst clown fish, which have a mucus layer that protects them from the sting of the anemone. The clown fish live amongst the sea anemone's tentacles and the sea anemone eats the scraps that the clown fish leave behind. The clown fish also help to clean the sea anemone's tentacles.
The sea anemone eats food and sends waste out through the same opening.


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