Giant carpet anemone

Stichodactyla gigantea

''Stichodactyla gigantea'', commonly known as the giant carpet anemone, is a species of sea anemone that lives in the Indo-Pacific area. It can be kept in an aquarium but is a very challenging species to keep alive and healthy for more than 3–5 years.
Help! The picture shows a Cardinal Fish getting caught by the Giant Carpet Anemone, which is the bubbly green/brown thing. The Anemone usually play host to Clownfishes. The Clownfishes uses the Anemone as protection and does not get eaten. The Anemone uses its tentacles (bubbly looking thing in the pic) which have specialised stinging cells called nematocysts to immobilise their prey (in this picture, a Cardinal Fish) so that the tentacles are then able to move the food into the mouth. Anemone,Anilao,Giant Carpet Anemone,Philippines,Stichodactyla gigantea

Appearance

''Stichodactyla gigantea'' has a diameter that is usually no larger than 50 centimetres and a maximum of 80 centimetres. It can appear in a number of colors, commonly brown or greenish and rarely a striking purple or pink, deep blue, or bright green. A healthy ''S. gigantea'' will possess tentacles that are extremely sticky to the touch, with firm adherence to surfaces.

Habitat

''S. gigantea'' resides on shallow seagrass beds or sand flats around 8 centimetres deep . Most anemones are treated as sessile, but the ones inhabited by anemonefish are in fact motile. Zooxanthellae are obligate symbionts within the anemone.

''S. gigantea'' hosts 7 different species of anemonefish
⤷ ''Amphiprion akindynos''
⤷ ''A. bicinctus''
⤷ ''A. clarkii''
⤷ ''A. ocellaris''
⤷ ''A. percula''
⤷ ''A. perideraion''
⤷ ''A. rubrocinctus''

Juvenile ''Dascyllus trimaculatus'' also associate with ''S. gigantea''.

References:

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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionCnidaria
ClassAnthozoa
OrderActiniaria
FamilyStichodactylidae
GenusStichodactyla
SpeciesS. gigantea
Photographed in
Philippines