Giant anemone
| Giant anemone | ||||||||||||
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Giant anemone ( Stichodactyla gigantea ) with Amphiprion ocellaris |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Stichodactyla gigantea | ||||||||||||
| ( Forsskål , 1775) |
The giant anemone ( Stichodactyla gigantea ) is a sea anemone from the tropical coral reefs of the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific . Contrary to its common German name and the specific epithet gigantea , it is not the largest species of sea anemone, but only significantly larger than the sea anemones known to European researchers when they first discovered Stichodactyla gigantea in the Red Sea. The largest sea anemone is Mertens anemone ( Stichodactyla mertensii ).
distribution
In the Indian Ocean it lives in the Gulf of Aden and in the coral reefs on the coasts of South India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to the southern Andaman Sea and the coast of Indonesia , but not in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf . In the Pacific , it inhabits the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines , Taiwan , the Ryūkyū Islands and the waters around New Guinea , the Solomon Islands , Vanuatus , New Caledonia and the Great Barrier Reef on the northeast coast of Australia and southern Micronesia. It is very common locally, occurs mainly in very shallow water and can even be exposed at low tide.
features
Giant anemones are white, green, or yellow-brown in color. Your folded mouth disk reaches a diameter of up to 50 centimeters. It is usually yellowish, pink, green-blue or gray-green in color, the foot more gray or brown, rarely pink, blue, green or purple. The tips of the tentacles often contrast with the color of the mouth disc and are then blue or maroon. The anemone's tentacles do not nettle, but are very sticky and tear off when a diver withdraws their hand.
Way of life
The giant anemone lives on sandy soils between rocky and coral reefs. In the event of danger, it slowly retreats into the substrate. It lives in symbiosis with zooxanthellae , from which it gets some of the nutrients it needs. The giant anemone is a symbiotic anemone and an important symbiotic partner of the anemonefish . They accept a total of seven species of anemonefish, including the two species of clownfish , as partners.
literature
- Daphne G. Fautin, Gerald R. Allen : Anemonefish and their hosts . Melle: Tetra-Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-89356-171-4
