Sea Anemone


The Sea Anemone

Mike Belanger

DESCRIPTION

Sea Anemone are a group of water dwelling, predatory animals of the order Actiniaria. The sea anemone is named after the equally flashy terrestrial anemone flower. Sea Anemone are classed in the phylum Cnidaria category. A close relative of coral and jellyfish, anemones are stinging polyps that spend most of their time attached to rocks on the sea bottom or on coral reefs waiting for fish to pass close enough to get caught in their venom-filled tentacles. Their bodies are composed of an adhesive pedal disc, or foot, a cylindrical body, and an array of tentacles surrounding them. There are more then 1000 sea anemone species found in the world's ocean at various depths. They run the full spectrum of colors and can be as small as half and inch(1.25 centimeters) or as big as 6 feet(1.8 meters) across. 

 

Sea anemone

 

Diet

It's diet consists of fish, shrimp, isopods amphipods and plankton. Also many other types of fish. 

 

Habitat

The sean anemone lives in different areas such as coastal tropical waters. There are more then 1000 sea anemone species found in the world's ocean at various depths. They live in both temperate and tropical seas in many different habitats in both high and low currents. Tropical anemones tend to be larger in size than the temperate ones. Sea anemones are usually found in rock pools and in crevices, under rocks where it stays cool and damp, and on dead coral, in the sand and attached to sea whips and hermit crabs. They try to avoid direct sunlight so when the tide goes out, shallow water anemones retract their tentacles and resemble lumps of jelly attached to the rocks. Sea anemones are thought to be very long lived.

 

Predator Adaptations

These tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, when so they shoot a harpoon like-filament into their victim and injecting a paralyzing neurotoxin. After they are dead the anemone pulls its victim into its mouth with its tentacles.

 

Prey Adaptations

Predators of sea anemones include nudibranchs, sea stars, and crustaceans because of their hard shell like skin. They can't run away from their predators because they cant swim because of their lack of finn's. Most of the animals that can eat the sea anemone are crustaceans because the tentacles that shoot the harpoon filaments can't penetrate the shell of the crustaceans.

 

Symbiotic Interactions

  The Sea Anemone has a relationship with the Clownfish, the relationship they have is mutualistic they both benefit off of each other. The Sea Anemone benefits off of the Clownfish because its lures its predators to the sea anemone and because the clownfish is immune to the sea anemone the prey gets killed by the sea anemone and then eats it but the clownfish is unharmed. The clownfish benefits because the sea anemone protects it from it's predators.     

 

Species Comparison

The specie that ressembles most to the Sea Anemone is the Jelly Fish. 

 

Similarities

Their distinguishing feature is cnidocytes, specialized cells that they use mainly for capturing prey. They have two basic body forms: swimming medusae and sessilepolyps, witch makes them very similar. 

 

Differences

The Jelly fish is a major non-polyp form of individual of the phylum Cnidaria. It is found in every ocean but the sea anemone is only found in coral reefs. 

 

Ressources

-Prezant, Robert S. "Sea anemone." World Book Student. World Book, 2013. Web. 4 June 2013. 

-Prezant, R. S. (2013). Sea anemone. In World Book Student. Retrieved from
http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar497620 

- National Geographic, National Geographic, June 4th, 2013. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/sea-anemone/

- Wikipedia, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 30 May 2013 at 07:37, Wikipedia, June 4th, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anemone