Fact File Sea Anemone

A Photographic experience

Sea Anemone:

Flower-like polyps having a cylindrical, or vase-like, body. Many species are colored; large specimens may attain a diameter of 1m. The body is closed and attached to rocks or coral at one end and, at the other end, has a central mouth surrounded by tentacles armed with nematocytes (stinging cells and thread cells that paralyse and entangle the small fish and marine animals that constitute its prey). The slit-like mouth opens into a short flattened pharynx opening into the body cavity. At each end of the mouth, a permanent pore opens into a ciliated groove, called a siphonoglyph, in the side of the pharynx, through which a continuous current of water flows, carrying oxygen to the tissues and removing waste matter.

Most sea anemones reproduce sexually; budding and fission are comparatively rare. The eggs are usually fertilized in the gastric cavity, and the young are discharged from the mouth as free-swimming larvae, which soon attach themselves to surfaces.