Talk:Sea anemone

Anemones and clown fish
This article states that clown fish are immune to their host's sting. I don't believe this is correct. The clown fish has a mucus coating that prevents stinging, although if removed, the clown fish will be stung. Someone with more knowledge of clown fish and anemone biology might want to edit this. Tczuel (talk) 07:53, 17 May 2009 (UTC)


 * In which case they are immune to the sting surely? In this case immunity does not mean in the same sense as a vaccine or lack of sensitivity, after all it would be a bit of a waste for the anemone to continuously sting the clownfish.  It would be good to clarify in the article why this is the case, I cannot confirm your mucous information myself but will search for it.  |→ Spaully₪† 14:58, 17 May 2009 (GMT)

Question
Can anyone tell me what species of anemone this is? – Quadell (talk) (help)  20:49, Nov 27, 2004 (UTC)


 * I think it looks like a giant green sea anemone Anthopleura xanthogrammica. Esox  id t 17:34, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

i — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.156.151.141 (talk) 02:51, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Contradictory section
The "Conservation" section of the article says: Anemones reproduce extremely slowly, and it is common for collected specimens to be well over 100 years old. And then, later: Due to the short lifespan and specialized needs of anemones, they do not live long in captivity. Anyone able to reconcile this? -- 12.74.206.13 08:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm guessing that they have a short lifespan in captivity from how that's done. -Aaedien (talk) 01:50, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Most Sea Anemones are shipped in dark containers to local fish stores. This shipment process causes the anemone to release it's internal algae causing it to turn a white color (become bleached). People who do not know this and buy a bleached anemone can expect it to survive for about 1-2 months before it starves to death. Another cause of short life spans of anemones is due to rough handling by either the shipper or fish store employee causing it to tear it's foot. A torn foot becomes infected and usually results in a dead anemone after 1-2 months. If handled correctly and provided the right conditions and placed into the aquarium in a healthy condition then I believe it can live for a very long time. 132.20.251.4 (talk) 01:23, 9 September 2008 (UTC) RUtecht

Sea anemone anatomy
Any chance of a diagram showing the anatomy?

I ask because I've just set up a cold water marine aquarium with rocks from a rock pool and have included 3 or 4 small anemones that I can't identify. About 7 mm diameter, body only 1 or 2 mm long, crusted with sand, about 18 tentacles, pale green. They live on a rock near the sand level and seem happy to be buried occasionally when other animals move sand around. Location: east coast of Scotland (Kingsbarns, Fife).

If I knew the anatomy I could give a more accurate description!

Norman Paterson - 81.179.240.244 21:22, 15 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Chinese wikipedia has this image. Now if I only knew chinese... http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sea_anemone.gif Cygnus78 00:00, 15 December 2005 (UTC)


 * There is an image here I think it pretty much represent a typical Actiniaria. Lejean2000  16:02, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Sea anemone illustration
Just wanted to point out this image I uploaded, which a maintainer may want to add to this article: Image:Haeckel Actiniae.jpg. --ragesoss 16:09, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I oppose putting this image on the page. First of all, it is not a photo and second, we already have too many pictures. It may be a good idea to build a gallery. Lejean2000  16:25, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

References (resolved)
There is not a single reference in the article. Someone should fix this.

Social actions and wars
I think it would be worth adding a section on the way some anemones form into patches and "fight" with each other, it's an interesting behavior. There is a link detailing it but nothing on the page itself. Rainman420 10:15, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

"Clone war" (resolved)
Also, there is a picture whose caption indicates two anemones are in "clone war" but there is no description of what "clone war" is, or maybe its vandalism, but I dont know enough. 74.224.148.55 21:43, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

cnidae capable of everting?
I think this sentence has been vandalized at some time, anyone knows what it's supposed to say where it says "everting"? "..Cnydocytes contain cnidae, capsule-like organelles capable of everting, giving phylum Cnidaria its name.." Just thought that maybe it's supposed to say "reverting", since I remember anemones sort of grasping a stick if you poked them with it. If so, isn't there maybe a better word? antabus 17:01, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Bah.. Just found out that everting is an actual word all by itself, and not just missing an 'r', sorry if anyone wasted time on my behalf antabus 10:41, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

utilisation of sea amnemones
I ran into this citation from Athenaeus today; "Considera scadenti tutti i piccoli pesci da friggere, tranne quelli ateniesi; intendo riferirmi ai gonos, che gli Ionici chiamano bavosa; e accettali solo se pescati da poco nel mare della baia di Falero (...). Se tu desideri gustarli appieno devi, al contempo al mercato, acquistare delle urticanti anemoni di mare con tentacoli a foglia. Poi uniscili al pesce e rosola tutto in padella, dopo aver preparato una crema di verdure scelte per ricoprire il tutto". (285; b, c; op. cit.). (from http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/c/carubia/autori_classici_greci_in_sicilia/html/testi/archestr.htm)

is there any exempls known of their utilisation as food or as anything else ? this article lacks in the relation of Human beings and the sea anemones. (perhaps theres no relation worth mentionning?)

Anenomes as food
Sea anemones are deep fried as an appetizer on the coast of Spain. The food is called "ortiguillas". The Greeks call them "Tighanites". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.161.82.230 (talk) 00:39, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

This should reference bubble tips
can any1 helo me with my question?well i just wanted to know how can u tell if its a boy or a girl.? i asked this cause i jusst got a salt water tank n i have an anemone n i want to know what its sex is so i can buy the oppisite sex?!

I think that the conservation/reproduction/harvesting comments should mention that there is an alternative for artificial reef tanks, namely bubble tip anemones, that reproduce in captivity over a shorter period of time.

Dead End!!!!
There are no subfamily/family links in this article, although many such pages link to it. Bob the Wikipedian (talk • contribs) 20:21, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect Caption
The picture that has the caption "Asexual reproduction of sea anemone via budding" is inaccurate. If that is Epiactis prolifera (as the file name implies), the offspring are produced sexually, and they are being brooded on the column of the large anemone, not budding from it asexually. Lars1424 (talk) 21:58, 17 November 2008 (UTC)lars1424

Bottom Trawling
Is it not true that more anemones are destroyed by bottom trawling than from harvesting them for fish tanks? I don't KNOW this so I don't want to add it to the main article without a reference... 63.248.87.149 (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Mollusks as prey
Aren't some mollusks easy prey for sea anemones? I remember seeing some small squid at the end of their lives (just following reproduction)drifting into the grasp of a sea anemone and being eaten on a Cousteau documentary. Octopuses ordinarily avoid them. Mussels and other sedentary mollusks washed away from their colonies and into a surge channel carpeted with sea anemones ordinarily end up in the grasp... and get devoured. So do scallops that take a panicked flight from a sea star but alight against the tentacles of an anemone.

Mollusks have soft bodies and rarely have immunity from anemone venom. Pbrower2a (talk) 08:12, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Fossil record
The "Fossil record" section links the earliest fossil of a sea anemone to a brachiopod (not even in the same phylum!) that looks much like a sea anemone. Such is even more preposterous than comparing a dachshund to an alligator because both have similarly-shaped bodies and mouths and short legs for their body size. At least dachshunds and alligators are both vertebrates!Pbrower2a (talk) 21:44, 14 January 2012 (UTC) sea anemones are very weird creatures they poo and fart out of there foot — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.174.3.65 (talk) 07:29, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Removed Section
I came across this and was amused at how inaccurate and clearly biased the section entitled "Exploitation" is. Many of the statements contained in it are unfounded and some are completely ludicrous. It's bad enough that I wonder if it is deliberate vandalism. The "citations" for this section are all either out of date, taken out of context, or irrelevant. It also focuses on host anemone species when this page is about anemones in general. I will remove this section and hope that whoever is responsible for it finds another outlet to air their grievances for the perceived wrongdoings of the aquarium industry. I just wanted to make a note in case anyone wondered about its disappearance. Sections on anatomy, ecology, life cycle, etc. are all very relevant to a general page like this, but I'm not sure how someone's anti-aquarium rant slipped in. CrisisRose (talk) 08:48, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Well spotted. The section was added five and a half years ago in this edit, the only edit by .  The username alone tells you that person was a vandal. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 14:23, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The edit you are referring to has no text in common with the section CrisisRose removed, with the exception of the mention of shrimp and other obligates. I removed most of the edit you referred to and rewrote the section in question with a NPOV and citations since it was unsourced and appeared biased. I'm not sure how what I wrote is perceived as an "anti-aquarium rant." It states in a NPOV the aquarium trade of anemones. If you are referring to the title, exploitation is a scientific term meaning removal or utilization. 1985 may be an older citation, but it cites a dollar figure, which was referred to as estimated import value during that period, specifically "In the early 1980s, the estimated value of imported marine fish and invertebrates was US$24–40 million annually." The other dates for citations are 1991 (Symbiosis), 1997 (Journal of the World Aquaculture Society), 2001 (Aquarium Sciences and Conservation), 2004 (Marine Invertebrates), 2005 (Coral Reefs), and all are scientific journals, listed in parentheses. Please state how they are taken out of context, because you appear to have not read the articles in question. I will be reverting the removal, as it appears unwarranted with the explanation given.  Esox  id t 02:24, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

File:Actiniaria.jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Actiniaria.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on August 23, 2012. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2012-08-23. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! — howcheng  {chat} 17:50, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Wrong Taxonomy?
In the text it says, that sea anemones are 'Zoantharia's. This is not true. They are instead 'Actiniaria's. Both are distinct Orders within the Subclass 'Hexacorallia'.

The error is to be found in ref.1, but Wikipedia should not use wrong information, if a reference fails.

Btw. The entire article is placed wrong taxonomically. Sea Anemones are not an Order in itself, and they certainly do not define the Order 'Actiniaria'. They are instead a SUBORDER within the order Actiniaria.

If you are new to taxonomy, you can get an easy overview of the structure here: Biological classification. Unfortunately the concept of Suborders are not shown on the picture, but it ought to be placed between Family and Order.

RhinoMind (talk) 18:15, 24 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Apparently some anemones are 'Zoantharia's, while the majority is 'Actiniaria's. Can anyone confirm this? It should be reflected in the text whatever is true. RhinoMind (talk) 20:39, 24 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I'll take a look at some cnidarian phylogenies to see what the consensus is. Zoantharia is typically used for fossil species, and looks like a synonym of Hexacorallia, so that should be updated. As for Actiniaria not defining sea anemones, I'm unclear as to what you mean. The suborders listed all include sea anemone species, and everything I've read define Actiniaria as sea anemones. Daly et al. (2007) has a good review of Cnidarian phylogeny. I have 9 other papers I'm going to read so I can create a taxonomy section, since there is nothing concerning it. Let me know your thoughts, I'd like the information to be correct. Esox  id talk•contribs 00:19, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

New Edit
Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I added a hyperlink for Amphiprion ocellaris into your article. I am a part of a Behavioral Ecology Class (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Program:Washington_University_in_St._Louis/Behavioral_Ecology_%28Fall_2013%29) Washington University and our assignment was to create hyperlinks from our articles to other articles as examples. Best of luck with your article!! Gseehra123 (talk) 22:20, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

New Species Found in Antarctica
[[File:Edwardsiella andrillae, a New Species of Sea Anemone from Antarctic Ice.png|thumb|External anatomy and habitus of Edwardsiella andrillae n. sp. show more

A. Close up of specimens in situ. Image captured by SCINI. B. “Field” of Edwardsiella andrillae n. sp. in situ. Image captured by SCINI. Red dots are 10 cm apart.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083476.g002 ]]

Using a camera-equipped robot to explore beneath the Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica, scientists and engineers with the Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program made an astonishing discovery. Thousands upon thousands of small sea anemones were burrowed into the underside of the ice shelf, their tentacles protruding into frigid water like flowers on a ceiling.

These animals are sea anemones of a new species, described as Edwardsiella andrillae. Edwardsiella is a genus of Edwardsiidae, a family of burrowing anemones reported from habitats ranging from the deepest trenches to hypersaline and hyposaline coastal estuaries. All previously described species belonging to Edwardsiella are from coastal waters.

This is the first species of sea anemone reported to live in ice. Previously described species of sea anemones from Antarctica are reported from hard [7-9] or soft [10-12] substrates, but always below the anchor ice.

The unprecedented habitat of Edwardsiella andrillae raises questions about the biology, physiology, and life history of the animal that cannot be answered given the present material. The means by which these animals burrow into the ice shelf is unclear, as are the physiological mechanisms that enable them to live in ice.

In addition to the anemones, the scientists saw fish that routinely swam upside down, the ice shelf serving as the floor of their undersea world. They also saw polychaete worms, amphipods and a creature they dubbed "the eggroll," a 4-inch-long, 1-inch-diameter, neutrally buoyant cylinder that seemed to swim using appendages at both ends of its body. It was observed bumping along the field of sea anemones under the ice and hanging on to them at times. The anemones measured less than an inch long in their contracted state -- though they get three to four times longer in their relaxed state, Daly said. Each features 20 to 24 tentacles, an inner ring of eight longer tentacles and an outer ring of 12 to 16 tentacles.

After using hot water to stun the creatures, the team used an improvised suction device to retrieve them from their burrows. They were then transported to McMurdo Station for preservation and further study. Because the team wasn't hunting for biological specimens, they were not equipped with the proper supplies to preserve them for DNA/RNA analyses, Rack said. The anemones were placed in ethanol at the drilling site and some were later preserved in formalin at McMurdo Station. Some sea anemones burrow into sand with tentacles or by expanding and deflating the base of their bodies, those strategies don't seem feasible for ice. It is also unclear how they survive without freezing and how they reproduce. There is no evidence of what they eat, although they likely feed on plankton in the water flowing beneath the ice shelf, Daly said.

A proposal is being prepared for further study of this unusual environment using a robot to explore deeper in the ocean and further from the access hole through the ice. NASA is helping finance the development of the new underwater robot because the Antarctic discoveries have implications for the possibility of life that may exist on Europa, the ice-covered moon of Jupiter. Researchers hope to return to Antarctica as early as 2015 to continue studying the sea anemones and other organisms beneath the ice shelf.

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